Medicare Part B Payments for Incident To Services

OBJECTIVE

Medicare Part B pays for physicians’ services and services and supplies “incident to” a physician’s services that are furnished by the physician’s staff, including non-physician practitioners. Incident to services must be an integral part of the physician’s services during diagnosis or treatment of an injury or illness, and, in general, must be furnished under the physician’s direct supervision. Incident-to services are billed under the physician’s National Provider Identifier number as if the physician personally provided the services. Medicare reimburses the incident to service at the full rate of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Prior OIG work found that improving the transparency of incident-to services is critical to program integrity efforts. Our objective is to determine whether Medicare Part B payments for services performed incident to physicians’ services complied with Medicare requirements.

TIMELINE

• November 15, 2024
  Announced
• Today
  Office of Audit Services In-Progress
• Est FY2026
  Estimated Fiscal Year for Project Completion

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