¶¶Òô´ó¹Ï members may submit coding inquiries electronically to codingquestions@asge.org. When submitting a question, please allow at least three business days for a response. When submitting inquiries, please include the ¶¶Òô´ó¹Ï member’s name and ID number. Only questions will be accepted and not reports. Below is our featured Coding Question of the Month that could be beneficial to your practice.
Question:
We are under the impression that studies where we bill for the interpretation/reading, the date of service billed is the date of the interpretation and not the date that the study happened. In the case of esophageal manometries, Bravo capsule placement readings, small bowel capsule endoscopy, etc., we recently found on the Medicare/Medicaid website that the date of service should be the date of ingestion. Can you please help clarify?
Answer:
Medicare contractor’s guidelines (which follow current CMS policy):
When billing a global service, the provider can submit the professional component with a date of service reflecting when the review and interpretation is completed or can submit the date of service as the date the technical component was performed. This will allow ease of processing for both Medicare and the supplemental payers. If the provider did not perform a global service and instead performed only one component, the date of service for the technical component would be the date the patient received the service and the date of service for the professional component would be the date the review and interpretation is completed.