background image
32
THE QUESTIONS
THE ISSUES RAISED
I saw a patient today at a location where I do not have a
currently open provider number. Can I claim using one of
my other provider numbers?
No provider number for a new
location. Can I use a different
one?
I have a contract with a private hospital which stipulates
that my private billings for certain procedures I undertake
at that location must be done by the hospital. However,
I am permitted to do my own billing for other services I
provide at that location, such as seeing patients on the
ward. But I can only have one provider number at that
location (as there is only one street address), so how can
I share that provider number between the two different
billing arrangements and systems?
Can I get two provider numbers
for the same location?
I'm an anaesthetist, so I don't have rooms and I don't
have set lists at the moment. I'm covering for colleagues
at various locations and I don't know from day to day
which location I may be at tomorrow. Do I need a provider
number at each location, or should I just have one linked
to my home? That's what my colleagues have told me to
do. And what do I do if I am at a completely new hospital
tomorrow where I had never thought to obtain a provider
number because I didn't know?
Moving locations daily while I
do locums ­ can I use a home
provider number?
I currently have a few provider numbers, one of which is at
my rooms. From time to time I may see private patients at
the public hospital, where I don't currently have a provider
number. Can I just use my rooms provider number, or do I
need to get one at the public hospital? And if I want you to
do that billing for me, how will that affect my rooms billing?
Rare visits to another location
­ do I need another provider
number?
If billing service X uses a
provider number linked to
practice Y, what will happen?
I use a room in the hospital twice a week to see my
outpatients and it does my claiming for the patients I see
on the day. If you do my inpatient claiming at that location,
what do I do about my provider number? I have another
one at the other local private hospital ­ can I use that?
Can I regularly use my provider
number at location X for
services I provide at location Y?
Under the terms of my contract at the public hospital, the
hospital has linked my public-hospital provider number
to its system and uses it to claim on my behalf for certain
clinics. But what do I do about the private patients I see at
that location, where I am entitled to retain the income?
I will have to use one of my other provider numbers, won't
I? Otherwise the claimed benefits will be deposited into
the hospital's bank account rather than mine.
The public hospital has the use
of my provider number but now
I can charge private patients at
the same location ­ is another
provider number necessary?