SEP 19, 2018
Charging for Missed Appointments
Question: Can we charge a patient for missed appointments?
Answer: Yes, unless it is prohibited by payer policy and/or terms of your contract. The patient should be informed that this is a practice-wide application. It is best practice to include verbiage in patient forms.
CMS’s policy is to allow physicians and suppliers to charge Medicare beneficiaries for missed appointments provided that they do not discriminate against Medicare beneficiaries but also charge non-Medicare patients for missed appointments. CMS also states that the practice cannot charge Medicare patients more than the practice’s usual and customary charge or simply stated, you cannot charge Medicare Part B beneficiaries a higher amount than others.
Learn more about exam billing in the Fundamentals of Ophthalmic Coding.