harllee
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I am 66 and am on traditional medicare. In December I wanted to get a pneumonia shot and have my cholesterol checked so I made an appointment with my doctor for a "Medicare Annual Wellness Exam". I specifically asked for the medicare annual wellness exam and was not told I would be billed for anything else. I had blood work done ahead of the visit, got the pneumonia shot and discussed the blood work with the doctor, whole thing took about 15-20 minutes. The doctor's office sends a very large bill to Medicare. Medicare pays for the blood work and the pneumonia shot but refuses to pay anything on the $400 doctor's bill because they say the doctor's office coded the bill as a preventive medical exam rather than an annual wellness visit. The doctors office bills me for the entire $400. I call my doctor's billing department and they tell me they cannot recode the bill because it included some things that are not part of the Medicare Annual Wellness visit, specifically a discussion of allergies. I do have allergies and they are noted on my medical chart but I do not remember any discussion of my allergies with the doctor at this visit and there would be no reason to discuss them with my general physician since I go to a specialist for my allergies.
Anybody else have trouble with getting a Medicare Annual Wellness visit correctly billed? Any advice?
Anybody else have trouble with getting a Medicare Annual Wellness visit correctly billed? Any advice?