Strategies for Getting Paid for Shoes Through Medicare
to remember that many of these medical professionals have been practicing medicine for years . In the past , chart notes were for the benefit of the doctors and their staff . They recorded only what they needed to know for the next visit . The idea of writing something down to help an insurance auditor make a decision on something they were prescribing never entered their mind . But the audits have changed all of that . Now many items require doctor ’ s notes . This is a hard pill for some doctors to swallow . We made the decision that we will not dispense shoes until we have notes in hand that will back up the RX and DWO .
3 . That brings us to the third step in the process : we had to educate our local doctor ’ s offices as to what will work in the chart notes and what will not work . This is perhaps the most difficult and easily the most frustrating part of all . Nobody likes change . We like to do things the way we always have done them , especially if we have been doing something for a long time . Doctors and their staff are no different . At first , getting acceptable notes was an uphill struggle . Multiple phone calls were made over the same patient trying to get things correct . “ No sir , I ’ m sorry but Medicare will not pay if your APN is the only one who signs the exam … you must sign with a statement you agree with the findings .” No ma ’ am I ’ m sorry but Medicare will not pay if you only note the location of your patient ’ s peripheral neuropathy but do not mention his calluses .” It can all be so frustrating ! And the people on the other end of the conversation can get frustrated also and sometimes get quite rude with you . “ You ’ re not going to tell me what to put in MY notes !” “ I guess your only concern is getting yourself paid by Medicare !” “ My notes have always been good enough before and I ’ m not wasting my time changing things to suit you !”
20 Pedorthic Footcare Association www . pedorthics . org