When using ultrasound for insertion of a PICC---
Is a copy of the ultrasound image required to be placed in the patient's record for billing? Is there any requirement on what image to take? The vein you are choosing to use? Needle in the vein? Compressed vein?
Thank you.
Forum topic
Thu, 10/22/2015 - 19:48
#1
Billing for PICCs
We don't save an image in our hospital . I have worked at hospitals that have though. They would just store the image of the vein they were canulating. It has to do with billing for the physician. An image can be read be a doc and he can charge for that image. In the PICC world I'm not sure how they get away with that, but like I said I have seen PICC teams do it.
Jack
Nurses cannot bill for our services. The only professionals who can bill are MD, PA, and NPs. It is a good idea to document with the photo just in case there is any question in the future. I would consider this to be good comprehensive documentation along with the printed report from ECG guidance for tip location Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Our code people did research for us, we billed for ultrasound guided needle placement ONLY with an image. Our Vision Ultrasound stored the image and downloaded to PACS. The image was of the vein intended for placement, the needle did not have to be in the vein, the vein was not compressed.
Our PAs bill for their PICCs with a pic of the needle in the vein. Our team of nurses often save a pic of the intended vessel prior to insertion just to show the vessel was of appropriate size for placement. If there is an issue with the vessel, such as suspected thrombus, we will save multiple pictures and label them in the chart.
Danielle McClain RN, BSN