Unqualified Health Care Workers Perform 21% of Medicare ‘Incident To’ Services

OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire Strategic Health Care News In the first quarter of 2007, physicians who billed Medicare for more than 24 hours of physician work time in a day actually performed only half of the services; the other half were performed by non-physician practitioners (NPP), health care workers such as physician assistants, nurses, medical technicians, and medical assistants. The NPPs’ time was billed as “incident to” services. About 21% of the “incident to” services were performed by unqualified NPPs who lacked necessary licenses, credentials, or training to perform the services. Unqualified NPPs performed seven percent of invasive . . .