Medicare-Coinsurance

When collecting "coinsurance" from Medicare patients but we don't know what level office visit it would be because doctor does not finish charge sheet when patient has been seen. How would this situation be handled. We want to collect "coinsurance" upfront but without knowing the level visit how much/percent would be safe to collect?

re: Medicare-Coinsurance

Medicare patients owe 20% of the allowed amount for an office visit. Does this doctor only do office visits? Does he/she do wellness exams, urinalysis, blood draws, ECG, etc?

It can be really hard to determine exactly what will be owed after Medicare. You would need to check how each procedure you're going to do will be processed. There is no co-insurance and the deductible is waived for some procedures.

I prefer to bill Medicare patients after the claim is processed. I don't like small balances and I really don't like having to do refunds. Not to mention, there have been many times where the patient only gives me the Medicare information and then when I receive the Medicare payment, I'll see that it was crossed over to a secondary. There are just too many variables with this that could cause a lot of extra work later.

re: Medicare-Coinsurance

Agree, but if the doc cannot tell you the charge there is NO WAY you can know what to charge. So blame the doctor ;-)

re: Medicare-Coinsurance

so true. thank you.

re: Medicare-Coinsurance