Billing for Physician Assistants in 2022 – During the PHE and with Updated Medicare Guidelines and New Split Shared Guidelines

Physician Assistants (PA) are more prevalent than ever in practices both primary care and surgical. They have proven themselves to be a valuable, productive addition to the provider group in an office.

During the Public Health Emergency (PHE), supervision requirements have changed per Medicare/CMS rules, allowing them to work even more autonomously. Is your practice utilizing your PA to the fullest extent it can? What will happen once the PHE is over? Which of the changes implemented will become permanent?

Each state has a defined Scope of Practice for a practicing Physicians’ Assistant. These can be very different from state to state, including allowances for prescriptive authority. Levels of supervision required for differing services need to be identified and followed to remain compliant. Collaborative care agreements can also be a consideration.

The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule for 2022, has significant changes for split and shared services beginning in 2023. For 2022, a hybrid of the new rules is being utilized. Understanding what is needed for 2022 and what difference is required in 2023 is a must for practices that want to utilize PAs to their full extent allowed.   

Webinar Objectives

• Understanding state scope of practice differences and how to look up yours
• Understanding the significant changes to Split Shared Billing for 2022 and 2023
• Understanding Medicare’s “incident to”  and levels of supervision including what has changed during the PHE
• What documentation is needed to meet the requirements of it
• Understanding Medicare’s concept of direct billing and what that means for the Physician Assistant
• Understanding why Medicare’s Physician’s Relative Value Fee Schedule Data Base is so valuable
• What payment policies are enacted for Physician Assistant services for differing Medicare services?
• What has all this to do with other commercial insurances?

Webinar Agenda

• State Scope of Practice – What is it?  Where to Find it? How do understand it?
• Introduction to Medicare’s Policy for Physician Assistant Billing – (payment policies, collaborative agreements)
• What changes were made for Physician Assistant services by Medicare in 2022?
• Introduction to Medicare’s policies for Incident to and Direct Billing (supervision requirements)
• Understanding Medicare’s Physician’s Relative Value Fee Schedule DataBase
• Medicare and Physician Assistants During the Public Health Emergency (PHE)
• Changes to policies in 2022 (Split Shared Visits, Critical Care, Defining Teaching Services, Diagnostic Testing)

Webinar Highlights

• State Scope of Practice Restrictions
• Incident To and Plan of Care Restrictions
• Direct Billing 
• Levels of Supervision and Temporary Changes during the PHE
• Commercial insurances diverse policies
• Split Shared Changes in 2022

Who Should Attend

• Coders
• Billers
• Officer Manager
• Office Administrators
• Physician Assistants