Practice Management

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  • 1.  PA for IR procedures and billing/reporting

    Posted 11-12-2021 11:45
    Our radiologist are looking into hiring a PA to perform minor IR procedures and having techs do fluoroscopic procedures where their presence is not required (e.g. barium swallow studies). We have a couple of questions on how this will affect billing:

    1. If we instruct Xray techs to perform Fluoro studies would that change anything on the billing side?
    2. If the radiologists hire a PA to help in radiology and train them to perform lumbar punctures, paracentesis, biopsies and consults what would we need to do for billing/reporting?

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    Virginia Osorio RCC
    Mineral King Radiological Medical Group, Inc.
    Visalia CA
    (559) 734-9244
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  • 2.  RE: PA for IR procedures and billing/reporting

    Posted 11-12-2021 12:16

    Victoria,

    Please see answers below beside your questions.

    1. If we instruct Xray techs to perform Fluoro studies would that change anything on the billing side? X-ray techs would not meet the supervision requirement for billing the procedure. An RA/RPA, NP or PA could perform the technical portion of the exam and the radiologist can provide the professional or interpretation of the exam.
    2. 2. If the radiologists hire a PA to help in radiology and train them to perform lumbar punctures, paracentesis, biopsies and consults what would we need to do for billing/reporting? The PA would need to be credentialed. They would dictate and sign what they do/perform under their scope of services based on their licensure in your state. The billing would be submitted in their name as the provider of service.

    Feel free to call me if you would like to discuss further.


     

    Sincerely,

    Renée C. Engle, RCC, RCCIR, FRBMA

    Senior Vice President, Client Services

    MSN Healthcare Solutions

    signature logo

    rengle@msnllc.com

    678-342-2578 (O)  | 770-815-4650 (M) | 678-342-5359 (F)

     






  • 3.  RE: PA for IR procedures and billing/reporting

    Posted 11-12-2021 13:32
    Thank you Renée for your quick response and thank you for the phone call invitation. I'll let our administrator know, I appreciate your help.

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    Virginia Osorio RCC
    Mineral King Radiological Medical Group, Inc.
    Visalia CA
    (559) 734-9244
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  • 4.  RE: PA for IR procedures and billing/reporting

    Posted 11-15-2021 13:19

    Hi Victoria,

    One of our subject matter experts had this add:

    It is important to mention that many payers reimburse at a lower rate (85% of standard allowance as noted in the 2022 MPFS final rule) for PA services. 

    Additionally, a few payers still don't assign PAs their own provider ID and in those cases they will need to bill under the name of the supervising physician. We definitely recommend that you reach out to contracted payers to understand how billing/credentialing should be handled.

    You can find more information in this article about physician extenders in radiology practice.

    I hope this information finds you is helpful. Please feel free to reach out to me with any further questions.



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    Rebecca Farrington
    Chief Revenue Officer
    Healthcare Administrative Partners
    (610) 892-8889
    rfarrington@hapusa.com
    www.hapusa.com
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  • 5.  RE: PA for IR procedures and billing/reporting

    Posted 11-15-2021 14:01
    The amount of reduction was a question my administrator had. I will forward this message onto my administrator. Thank you Rebecca.

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    Virginia Osorio RCC
    Radiology Coder
    Mineral King Radiological Medical Group, Inc.
    Visalia CA
    (559) 734-9244
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