Medical Billing Forum
Billing => Billing => : dsinger March 27, 2012, 01:57:06 PM
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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?
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You say they have medicare as primary, do they have a secondary?
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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.