Stay Away From 'Double Billing' When Engaged in This Radiology Procedure

After suffering a blow to the head, a patient showedall-encompassing report. If your physician reads the
the following symptoms - dizziness, sleepiness, slurredfilms/fluoros and bills for them, then you should keep
speech, and confusion. The doctor attending to thehandy a separate note with a separate signature at
patient ordered a CT scan to check for internal injuriesthe end of the op.
and aneurysm. After finding out that there was noYou probably could not report the CT scan
evidence of serious injury, the doctor admitted theinterpretation for your doctor in the above scenario
patient for observation.because, very likely, the hospital radiologist would
Under such circumstances, can the physician biller billprepare the initial report for the CT scan. Even when
for the interpretation?your doctor provides the immediate interpretation used
The answer is no. The physician biller cannot bill for thefor treatment and the radiologist provides an
interpretation. A facility radiologist or other physician"over-read" (secondary quality assurance review),
may give interpretations for all ordered tests as ahospital rules may give the charge to the radiologist.
matter of policy in a hospital or other inpatient facility.Conclusion: So if one physician has already interpreted
As such, you being the admitting but not attendinga test and provided a report outlining the result, no
ordering, physician's biller, you are not entitled toother physician can bill for the same service. This
reporting the interpretation for 70460.would fall under the category of radiology procedure
You need to ensure that only one person reads thedouble-billing.
diagnostic test and the person billing it should have an