Medical Billing Forum
Payments => Patient Billing => : Ryanne September 08, 2011, 02:27:18 PM
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I know we cannot balance bill a patient that is on Medicaid. However, can we bill a cancellation fee to a patient who is CONSISTENTLY a no-show, or cancels just an hour or so before treatment time? We have a waiting list, and that time slot could be easily filled, if we had 24 hours notice.
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Yes, if the office's Policies and Procedures outlines this, and the patient signed and agreed to it. If it was a Worker's Comp case you'd be out of luck though!
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Our intake form for all new patients states clearly that if they do not give 24 hours notice of cancellation and the slot cannot be filled, we will bill them for the lost hour. Typically we only enforce that for the habittual no-shows, but make sure you have it in writing and it usually only takes 1 time of billing them before they become the perfect on-time patient!
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Actually, I found out from the provider representative at TX Medicaid that we cannot bill the patient for anything. However, we can report them to Health and Human Services.
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I thought it might vary by state. You can discharge the patient from your care as well I believe if it is a continual problem, but I know there are rules about that as well. I believe they must be referred to another provider. You can't just cut them loose.