Medical Billing Forum

General Category => General Questions => : Scott April 07, 2017, 03:36:18 PM

: Billing Drug Screens for Sober Living or Treatment Centers
: Scott April 07, 2017, 03:36:18 PM
I run a company that sells medication and does billing for the medications that providers dispense at their office to their patient. We are also starting to bill for Work Comp Drug Screening for the last few years and it's profitable ($250 - $400 per drug screen). I've been hearing a lot about billing for drug screening for Sober living and/or drug treatment centers at a much higher rate and getting paid close to the amount billed (Bill out %k, get paid $3,500 per drug screen.) I'm looking to get into this business. What is the CPT code or billing code used to bill this amount?
: Re: Billing Drug Screens for Sober Living or Treatment Centers
: kristin April 08, 2017, 11:21:48 PM
Someone else came on the forum a while back asking about this very same thing. I tried searching for the post, and couldn't find it. At the time, I remember thinking that getting paid that much for a drug screen seemed ridiculously inflated. With your question, I Googled it in various ways, and the results were less than positive, no pun intended. There are definitely some problems....and you will see that if you Google also. Basically, if I am understanding what I am reading correctly on various websites, the whole thing is considered a kick-back scheme between the facilities and the labs involved, and insurances are on to it, as well as fraud investigators. Drug screening in general is on the radar, it would seem.

EDITED TO ADD: I found the previous post, because you replied to it, below this post you started, lol!
: Re: Billing Drug Screens for Sober Living or Treatment Centers
: Michele April 10, 2017, 12:02:45 PM
I agree with Kristin.  We have billed urine drug screen tests and the doctors were charging $180 for screening up to 11 or 12 substances.  I do not know what charges are being done for $5000 but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a practice that is being investigated.