It’s finally happened. It’s no secret that many Hospital Based Outpatient Departments (HOPDs) have played fast and loose with the requirement for direct physician supervision of nearly all wound management services. At any rate, the requirement for direct physician supervision of services in the HOPD is gone, and that includes hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Here’s what they said:
“After reviewing all of the public comments, we are finalizing our proposal for CY 2020 and subsequent years to change the generally applicable minimum required level of supervision for hospital outpatient therapeutic services from direct supervision to general supervision for services furnished by all hospitals and CAHs without modification… safeguards include allowing providers and physicians the discretion to require a higher level of supervision to ensure a therapeutic outpatient procedure is performed without risking a beneficiary’s safety or their quality of the care…”
I am not sure what this means, since it will be hard to justify paying a doctor to supervise a treatment if they don’t have to be there. Hospitals can decide that they want direct supervision of HBOT, but that doesn’t mean it will be reimbursed. Stay tuned.
Additional Reading:
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
The opinions, comments, and content expressed or implied in my statements are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the position or views of Intellicure or any of the boards on which I serve.
Hello, Dr. Fife – is this directly related to 99183: PR PHYS/QHP ATTN&SUPV HYPRBARIC OXYGEN TX /SESSION? Could you please help identify a page number or section in the attached ruling for review. I appreciate the heads up and will be following this closely. Thank you.
Thank you for the information. I will be following closely.