An Educational Visit
by AJ Riviezzo
A large number of practices offer a free consultation in their advertising. It is a great way for both parties, the practice and the patient, to size up each other up. The patient is able to delay the purchasing decision and allows for some information to be exchanged ensuring they are an educated consumer.
I strongly recommend that the free consultation is just an educational visit. The patient should be coached over the telephone that they will receive 10 to 15 minutes of the physician’s or staff’s time to review any questions they may have about their venous disease. Asking the patient to write down their questions prior to the appointment is a fantastic way to have the patient more involved and more invested in their treatment.
My concern is that many practices are treating this visit as a quasi-initial patient visit. They are not only gathering the patient self-report documents but also documenting what is essentially a History and Physical. Some practices even perform a mini-diagnostic ultrasound as well. The concerns with this are twofold. The first issue is that the practice will be bringing the patient back to actually complete the remaining portions of the History and Physical. Medicare and other auditing agencies can make a strong argument that the INITIAL patient visit was during the free consult and not the date the History and Physical was completed. The second concern is that Medicare could consider the ‘free’ care – examination and ultrasound – as an inducement which is not allowed.
Medicare does allow for an educational visit as do all commercial payers. As such, I recommend that the documentation for the visit is reflective of this educational concept. A quick tip: If the patient does have the full History and Physical and/or diagnostic ultrasound performed the same day as the free consult, have the patient sign some small document noting that they understand the free consultation has been completed and that they are now receiving medical services which will be billed to their insurance carrier. The patient may forget to wear their hose or return for their next appointment. They always seem to remember that the services that day were all supposed to be free.
No comments yet.