I was at a medical conference recently and one of the speakers – a well-established consultant surgeon and an incredibly safe pair of hands – stated during his presentation that a private surgeon could not charge for inpatient care.
He may well be a safe pair of hands but on that point he was wrong.
After the conference, I had a word and said he was incorrect. It IS possible to charge for inpatient care.
The code for inpatient care is 20320.
I couldn’t help but suggest to him that the mere fact there was a separate code for inpatient care indicated it could be charged.
Obviously, it may well depend on the insurance company concerned. In principle, however, it is possible to charge. I knew I was right because I’d actually charged for inpatient care for an MHM client a few weeks earlier. And the invoice had been paid.
But he wouldn’t budge.
He was right.
I was wrong.
Skip forward a few weeks and I received an email from my consultant surgeon friend confirming that I had been right all along and he had been wrong.
A private consultant surgeon MAY charge for inpatient care.
Why is it sad that I had been right?
Because my consultant surgeon friend has been in private practice for well over a decade and he’d NEVER charged for inpatient care.
More significantly though, my friend had not checked each month what could and could not be charged for.
That also begged the question if the fees he was charging had been checked with the same frequency too. He hadn’t so as a favour I checked for him.
The good news is that only 3 of his fees had altered.
The bad news is that one of them had gone up £107 five months earlier yet he was charging the old and lower fee.
Thus it is important not only does a Private Consultant Surgeon need to establish what he can or can’t charge for, it is just as important to check HOW MUCH you can charge for!
pete@medicalhalthcaremanagement.co.uk