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What About Modifier Q6?

What About Modifier Q6?

Published by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P on January 4, 2007

Remember when medical billing used to be a simple affair of matching the procedure done with a couple of medical billing codes to describe what was done, attaching your documentation and then submitting your medical billing claim for reimbursement?

Now we have codes for codes and modifiers and the need to when to bundle and when to not bundle with the goal being fair reimbursement for procedures done. Modifiers cause a lot of confusion for many medical billers. One such confusing modifier that is worth clarifying is Q6.

This applies to Medicare medical billing claims only, but in a nutshell when one of your staff physicians takes a leave of absence for any reason and a substitute physician fills in, you need to add the Q6 modifier to Medicare claims the sub handles if you want to ensure reimbursement for the services that the sub provides.

If you’re wondering why, the reason is that when a substitute or locum tenens physician handles patients, Medicare wants to see specific modifiers on claims. This is to make sure that the time limits on locum tenens doctors are strictly observed.

In order to be reimbursed, make sure that modifier Q6 (Service furnished by a locum tenens physician) is attached to all codes for procedures performed by the substitute physician. This lets the Medicare carrier know that you are coding for a locum tenens physician. Without the modifier, you’ll likely receive a denial for the claim.

Since many private carriers are adopting more and more of Medicare’s standards for payment on services; before filing a locum tenens claim with a private insurer, verify with the plans as to their requirements for locum tenens billing — and whether or not they even recognize it. Some good questions to ask are
* Do you recognize modifier Q6?
* Which provider’s ID should be reported for the services?
* Does the locum tenens provider need to be credentialed with the payer, even if only temporary privileges?
As always – write down the full name and position of whomever you speak with and the time and date of your call in case you need to track that person down again.

Published by: on January 4, 2007

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