Another HST company is doing the clinical evaluation as part of their service. Isn that a better option?
Medicare requires that both the initial clinical evaluation and the follow-up visits must to be done by the patient’s treating physician (there are allowances for nurse practitioners to be involved under the direction of treating physician). While it may be okay for a company to collect information on behalf of a physician who still evaluates and scores themselves, providing a service beyond that which is being billed could be construed as an incentive to refer. We don’t expect this model to work well.
