Medical Billing Forum

Payments => Patient Billing => : lpfamilyphys September 21, 2015, 03:40:27 PM

: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: lpfamilyphys September 21, 2015, 03:40:27 PM
Our office had a current patient come in the office and update their insurance for the visit.  But refused to sign the bottom of our form which has our release of payment and allows our office to bill their insurance on their behalf.  The patient was allowed to be seen and the provider told them we would bill their insurance.  What I need to know is can we still bill the insurance company if we do not have an up to date signed release?  The last one was signed in 2013 with a different insurance company. 
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: rdmoore2003 September 21, 2015, 07:48:28 PM
The form is to give the providers office the ok to file their insurance and receive payment.  If the patient refused, did you at least take payment from him/her before leaving the office?
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: kristin September 21, 2015, 10:18:35 PM
You don't have a signature on file for this new insurance, so you can't state on the claim form that you do, so you can't send the claim to insurance. The patient better have paid in full before they left your office, because of their refusal to sign the release. If they don't want to use their insurance, they don't have to, but at that point, it becomes a self pay situation.
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: Michele September 21, 2015, 11:19:35 PM
Why did the patient provide the insurance information if they were going to refuse to give permission to bill?  I'm wondering if the patient didn't understand that the insurance couldn't be billed without her permission.  Maybe a phone call should be made to explain this and advise that if permission isn't given then she is fully responsible for the bill.  Maybe there is a reason that she didn't want to sign and that can be resolved?
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: lpfamilyphys September 22, 2015, 12:19:43 PM
Thank you all for your responses.  It always makes me feel good that I kinds knew the right answer all along :).  I am going to contact the patient and find out why they did not want to sign the form.  I was not in the office when the situation happened so I could not explain or get down to the bottom of it.  I wish I could say that it did turn into a self pay situation but it did not.  Our whole office has now learned their lesson and has been trained on the way to handle this situation.  Thank you again for all of your answers.
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: kristin September 23, 2015, 12:27:00 AM
Hopefully it was just a miscommunication between patient and staff, and the patient signs the authorization. At the very least, everyone knows how to handle a similar situation in the future.
: Re: New PT Demos & refusual to sign forms NEED HELP
: PMRNC September 29, 2015, 01:21:58 PM
You don't need a signature for Treatment, payment or operations. Note the patient's file.