The theory of coding for a locum tenens scenario is surprisingly easy. Assuming the locum is replacing a doctor who is temporarily unavailable (i.e. extended vacation, maternity leave) and provides care for no more than 60 days at a time, the claim would appear identical to one submitted by the doc on leave with one exception: modifier Q6 would be applied to each procedure to indicate that a temporary doc provided the service(s). That modifier can be added on the invoice by double-clicking on each line item and using the “Additional Modifiers” dropdown list:
Here’s what the invoice would look like:
Since the NPI on the claim needs to be the “regular” provider’s, that provider will need to be listed as the responsible doctor on the encounter and, in turn, will need to sign the locum’s charts. It will be important, obviously, to indicate within the encounter that it was provided by a doctor other than the “regular” one. This could be done via notation in a place of your preference (i.e. RFV) or perhaps the use of the Ancillary Participant function on the Coding screen. The customer support team would be happy to help with the latter if that is of interest to you.
