Medicare / 20% / owership

[dsinger]

I am a DME provider if I have a patient who has medicare as primary and they can present a hardship showing they can not pay their 20% copay so I write off the 20% after receiving the hardship paperwork, who retains ownership of the DME equipment me or the patient?

[rdmoore2003]

You say they have medicare as primary, do they have a secondary?

[PMRNC]

I would also want to know if a secondary is involved. As for ownership of the equipment, if your billing is for a purchase and you waive co-pay/or out of pocket, the patient would retain ownership, as you are agreeing to write off the out of pocket.  So long as this is not done "routinely" and there is a hardship agreement and you have billed both carriers it is legal. In my opinion if there is a secondary, I would not write off if the secondary is going to pay a good portion of the out of pocket.