ABN/Waiver

Hi all -

Every Medicare patient is required (by Federal Law) to sign an ABN (Advanced Beneficiary Notice). This form states that some services are not covered by Medicare and the patient has the option to receive those services or not (and be required to pay for said service). They need to read and sign this form. Since we have not been doing this, please do your best to have each Medicare patient sign one on their next visit. After that, we need to have each Medicare patient sign one at least every two weeks. If a patient's visits are more than two weeks apart, they will need to sign one EVERY VISIT.

Also, we will be implementing a waiver that is mostly geared to HSM and Blue Plus patients, due to their reqirement stating patients must be informed that if their insurance does not cover certain services, they (the patient) will be financially responsible. If a patient is not made aware of this prior to the service, they (the patient) can not be billed and we are forced to 'eat' that bill and adjust it off their account. I realize this may be a little confusing, but these are not our rules, we simply need to follow them.

Mike