Medical Billing Forum
Billing => Billing => : melissa_2004 May 14, 2010, 10:41:55 PM
-
Is there anyone charging for no show appointments for mental health providers? If so, how? I am billing for a psychiatrist who has decided to now start charging for no show appointments.
-
There are a lot of discussions on this topic. You want to first educate the provider that if they begin charging for this it should be noted in both their office policy which the patient should see prior to this change. It should also be in their policies and procedures exactly how these will be handled. You cannot charge the insurance carriers this charge which I'm sure you already know. Collecting these from patients can also be tedious because they can be easily challenged. The fee should also be established and the same across the board regardless of insurance. Some providers will charge the allowable fee as the missed/late cancel charge and this really is not ethical. There should be one flat fee for all patients. In some states you also cannot charge Medicaid patients a no-show fee and I've even seen manged care (TPA) contracts which have that verbiage in them too so you want to be careful you don't violate any of your contracts.
-
Thanks Linda.
-
Our psychologist actually bill the full hourly rate for missed appointments.
-
*blink blink*
-
Billing for missed appointments and collecting on them are two totally different things! ::)
-
You also need to check any insurance contracts you have as some insurance companies put a clause in the contract stating that you can not charge their insureds for no shows.
-
Yes particularly Medicaid. Medicaid's policies in some states actually prohibit you from billing Medicaid Patient's for no-show's. However if your practice has habitual no-show's by any patient, you can legally dismiss the patient as long as you follow your state guidelines and policy guidelines on dismissal, this should be in the practices policies/procedures.