Forum - Questions & Answers

Apr 29th, 2016 - cmarx

Smoking Cessation and Obesity Counseling

In an article by you in Physician’s practice. It states:
Medicare pays for intensive behavioral therapy (IBT) for beneficiaries with a body mass index of 30 or greater. This service may be performed by a primary-care physician, OB/GYN physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or certified clinical nurse specialist. In CMS's decision memo to support covering the service, they said the service may be performed incident-to a physician service by ancillary personnel. "In the primary-care office setting, Medicare may cover these services when billed by the primary-care physician or practitioner and furnished by auxiliary personnel under the conditions specified under our regulation at 42 CFR section 410.26(b) (conditions for services and supplies incident to a physician's professional service)."

Does this mean that an RN could furnish the obesity counseling incident-to the supervising physician and be billed under the physician? If so, could an RN provide this as a separate billable service from the Medicare annual wellness visit? The decision memo by CMS seems to refer to physicians (certain specialties), non-physician practitioners, and CCNS. In addition, can RNs provide smoking cessation counseling under a supervising physician?

Thanks



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