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Department of Health and Human Services

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

June 2001 OEI-02-00-00290

Medicare Coverage of Non-Physician Practitioner Services

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

The mission of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), as mandated by Public Law 95-452, is to protect the integrity of the Department of Health and Human Services programs as well as the health and welfare of beneficiaries served by them. This statutory mission is carried out through a nationwide program of audits, investigations, inspections, sanctions, and fraud alerts. The Inspector General informs the Secretary of program and management problems and recommends legislative, regulatory, and operational approaches to correct them.

Office of Evaluation and Inspections

The Office of Evaluation and Inspections (OEI) is one of several components of the Office of Inspector General. It conducts short-term management and program evaluations (called inspections) that focus on issues of concern to the Department, the Congress, and the public. The inspection reports provide findings and recommendations on the efficiency, vulnerability, and effectiveness of departmental programs.

OEI's New York Regional Office prepared this report under the direction of John I. Molnar, Regional Inspector General and Renee C. Dunn, Deputy Regional Inspector General. Principal OEI staff included:

REGION HEADQUARTERS

Nancy Harrison, Project Leader Jennifer Antico, Program Specialist Natasha Besch Tricia Davis, Program Specialist Vincent Greiber Brian Ritchie, Technical Support Staff Christi Macrina

To obtain copies of this report, please call the New York Regional Office at 212-264-2000. Reports are also available on the World Wide Web at our home pate address:

http://www.hhs.gov/oig/oei

Department of Health and Human Services

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

June 2001 OEI-02-00-00290

Medicare Coverage of Non-Physician Practitioner Services

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

PURPOSE

To describe the scope of services nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants provide to Medicare beneficiaries, and to identify any potential vulnerabilities that may have emerged since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

BACKGROUND

Nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants are health care providers who practice either in collaboration with or under the supervision of a physician. We refer to them as non-physician practitioners. States are responsible for licensing and for setting the scopes of practice for all three specialties. Services provided by them can be reimbursed by Medicare Part B.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA97) modified the way the Medicare program pays for their services. Prior to January 1, 1998, their services were reimbursed by Medicare only in rural areas and certain health care settings. Payments are now allowed in all geographic areas and health care settings permitted under State licensing laws. Furthermore, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists are now allowed to bill Medicare directly. The services of a physician assistant, however, must continue to be billed by an employer.

Our study is based on: a review of the State scopes of practice; an analysis of Medicare billing data from the years 1997, 1998, and 1999; and information obtained from Medicare Part B carrier medical directors.

Because this inspection’s intent is to be a first look at the effect of the new coverage rules under BBA97, the findings are descriptive in nature. The inspection presents what the billing data show. It also describes the State scopes of practice that are used to control billing. It is not the purpose of this inspection to evaluate the benefits or disadvantages of non-physician practitioner services.

FINDINGS

Non-Physician Practitioner Billings Are Rising Rapidly

It appears that the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is having a substantial effect on non- physician practitioner billing. In 1999, Medicare paid for 5.2 million services, compared to 1.2 million services in 1997. Because some of these services had been billed as “incident to” prior to 1997, we were unable to determine how much of the increase in

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billings was due to real growth in services and how much was due to simple changes in billing practices. The top services billed were for office or outpatient visits in office settings.

State Scopes of Practice Provide Little Guidance to Carriers

Our analysis found that the State scopes of practice are broad and as a result provide little guidance that carriers can use to process claims. Most scopes of practice contain only a general statement about the responsibilities, education requirements, and a non-specific list of allowed duties and do not explicitly identify services that are complex or beyond their scope. Carriers voice concerns over non-physician practitioners performing services such as surgery and endoscopies. Furthermore, when a service is not addressed in a scope, it cannot be assumed that a non-physician practitioner cannot provide that service. Scopes, as well as Medicare, call for collaboration with a physician. This may have the effect of either limiting or expanding the services that are allowed. If a nurse practitioner is directed by a cardiologist to make a complex diagnosis, there is nothing in the scopes preventing such a practice. In fact, States generally have a vague definition for acts such as diagnosis.

Carrier Monitoring of Non-Physician Practitioner Claims is Limited

Although all but one Medicare carrier acknowledges that non-physician practitioners are included in post-payment reviews, most carriers confirm that no pre-payment edits exist to monitor their claims. Several carriers state that monitoring is limited by the broad language in their scope of practice. Sixteen carriers do not verify that the non-physician practitioners are working within their scope, and at least 22 carriers do not check the collaborative or supervisory agreements. Most information given to carriers from HCFA include basic Balanced Budget Act language, and directives to treat non-physician practitioners as a physician when monitoring their claims.

CONCLUSION

The Balanced Budget Act successfully opened up the medical practice to non-physician practitioners, regardless of care settings. Non-physician practitioner billings are rising rapidly, but controls, which are based on scopes of practice, are limited. State scopes of practice are vague and broad. As such, carriers do not have sufficient guidance to distinguish which non-physician practitioner services should be reimbursed by the program and which should not. This creates potential vulnerabilities, both from payment and quality of care standpoints. Therefore it may be appropriate to consider other additional controls for Medicare payments to non-physician practitioners. We plan to monitor non-physician practitioner services for both overall trends and for complex services.

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Agency Comments

We received comments on the draft report from the Health Care Financing Administration. They concur with our conclusion regarding vulnerabilities when non- physician practitioners bill Medicare. They are, however, sensitive to increasing the monitoring burden on contractors. The HCFA expressed a willingness to work with the OIG to monitor vulnerabilities in non-physician practitioner billings. We plan to do additional work to identify specific vulnerabilities by examining the billing practices of non-physician practitioners.

The full text of HCFA’s comments are contained in Appendix F.

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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

PAGE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Non-Physician Practitioner Billings Rising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Scopes of Practice Provide Little Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Carrier Monitoring is Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

APPENDICES

A. Services and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

B. Most Frequent Settings and Services, 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

C. States’ Recognition of Non-Physician Practitioners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

D. Prescriptive Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

E. Review Criteria for State Scope of Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

F. Agency Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Medicare Coverage of Non-Physician Practitioner Services OEI-02-00-00290

I N T R O D U C T I O N

PURPOSE

To describe the scope of services nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants provide to Medicare beneficiaries, and to identify any potential vulnerabilities that may have emerged since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.

BACKGROUND

Nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants are health care providers who practice either in collaboration with or under the supervision of a physician. States are responsible for licensing and for setting the scopes of practice for all three specialties. Nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists are licensed advanced practice registered nurses who have specialty training in primary care or acute care of patients. Both of these nurse specialties must practice in collaboration with a physician. In contrast, a physician assistant is a licensed health care professional who practices under the supervision of an immediately available physician responsible for delegating medical services to the physician assistant. All States limit the number of physician assistants a physician is allowed to supervise. Although there are other types of non-physician practitioners, such as clinical nurse midwives and nurse anesthetists, for the purposes of this inspection we will refer to nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants collectively as “non-physician practitioners.”

Medicare Payment

Medicare provides health insurance to people who are 65 years and older, people who are disabled, and, people with permanent kidney failure. Medicare consists of two primary parts: Hospital Insurance, also known as Part A, and Supplementary Medical Insurance, also known as Part B. Medicare Part A provides coverage of institutional care such as inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care, home health services, and hospice care. Medicare Part B pays for the cost of non-institutional care such as physician services, outpatient hospital services, medical equipment and supplies, as well as services provided by non-physician practitioners. Medicare uses entities called contractors to process claims. Fiscal intermediaries process Part A claims and carriers process Part B claims. Each Medicare Part B carrier must employ a medical director whose duties include: assisting in the review of claims; providing clinical judgment in medical review of claims; directing carrier personnel on the correct application of policy during claim adjudication; and providing advice to the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) on national coverage and payment policy.

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To be reimbursed by Medicare, the non-physician practitioner must practice in accordance with State law. This law is embodied in the State nurse practice acts, which are also known as the State scopes of practice. The scope of practice typically defines the practitioner’s practice, qualifications, board representation, and fee/ renewal schedule. The scopes may also list specific examples of responsibilities such as taking histories, patient care, education and training.

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997

Allowed Expanded Billing. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 modified the way the Medicare program pays for non-physician practitioner services. Prior to January 1, 1998, these services were reimbursed by Medicare Part B only in certain geographical areas and health care settings. Nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist services were covered when provided in collaboration with a physician in nursing facilities in urban areas and in all settings in rural areas. They could also bill Medicare directly for services provided in rural areas. Physician assistant services were covered when provided under the supervision of a physician in hospitals and nursing facilities, as an assistant to surgery, in physician offices and patient homes in rural areas, and in a rural area designated as a health professional shortage area.

The Act also removed the restrictions on settings. Effective January 1998, payment is now allowed for non-physician practitioner services in all geographic areas and health care settings permitted under State licensing laws, but only if no facility or other provider charges are paid in connection with the service. Nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists are now allowed to bill directly in all settings in both rural and urban areas. The services of a physician assistant, however, must continue to be billed through an employer.

Clarified Education/Certification. The 1997 legislation clarifies the educational and/or certification requirements for certain non-physician practitioners to receive Medicare reimbursement. The regulations spell out the requirements as follows:

Nurse practitioners must: • be a registered professional nurse; • be authorized to perform services in the State where they practice; • be certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or

comparable certifying agency; and • hold a Master’s degree in Nursing, as of January 1, 2003.

Clinical nurse specialists must: • be a registered nurse; • be licensed in the State where they practice; • be certified by the ANCC; and

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• hold a Master’s degree in a defined clinical area of nursing from an accredited educational institution.

Physician assistants must: • be licensed and authorized in the State where they practice and • either have graduated from an accredited educational program, or

passed the National Certification Examination.

Modified Reimbursement. The Act also set new reimbursement levels. It allows payment of 80 percent of the lesser of either (1) the actual charge or (2) 85 percent of the scheduled physician fee. Prior to the Act payment for nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist services, when furnished in all settings in a rural area, could have been made either directly to the nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist, or to the employer or contractor of the nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist at 75 percent of the physician fee schedule for services furnished in a hospital, 85 percent of the physician fee schedule for services furnished in other settings, and at 65 percent for assistant at surgery services. Payment for nurse practitioner services when furnished in skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities in an urban area was made to the employer of the nurse practitioner at 85 percent of the physician fee schedule. Before the Act, payment for physician assistant services was made to the employer at 85 percent of the scheduled physician fee and at 65 percent of physician fee schedule for assistant to surgery services.

Because the Act removed the restrictions on settings, interest has increased in the services non-physician practitioners are providing. The General Accounting Office’s January 2000 report, Lessons Learned From HCFA’s Implementation of Changes to Benefits, recommended that HCFA implement a recommendation made by an internal HCFA group that studied potential vulnerabilities brought about by the Act’s changes. This group suggested that HCFA (1) survey the States to establish a national database of allowable practices for possible use in forming policies, (2) work with national accreditation bodies to establish standard minimum scopes of practice, and (3) that HCFA conduct a baseline study to determine the volume and type of services billed by clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners. At the present time, HCFA’s Program Safeguard Contractor is conducting a baseline study in three States to determine the volume and type of services clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners are providing.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is also interested in non-physician practitioner services. The AMA is leading a coalition of medical organizations that is concerned HCFA is not ensuring that advanced practice nurses are working in collaboration with a physician and within their scope of practice.

Incident to services. The Act did not affect any services provided incident to physicians services. Incident to services are provided by employees of the physician under the physician’s direct on-site supervision. Incident to services may be provided by nurse

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practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants, medical assistants, technicians, nurses, and others employed by the physician. These services continue to be paid at 100 percent of the physician fee schedule amount as though the physician personally performed the services. The physician does not have to indicate on the claim that a non-physician practitioner performed the service. This inspection did not set out to examine incident to services. It focuses on services that the non-physician practitioner bills directly and services that are billed, as is always the case for physician assistants, through the employer with the non-physician practitioner specialty indicated. Carriers have complained that incident to services are difficult to track.

SCOPE

This inspection is intended to be a first look at the effect of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 which enables non-physician practitioners to bill Medicare for all allowable services in all settings. The findings of this inspection are descriptive in nature.

The inspection presents what the billing data show about the services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. It also describes the States’ scopes of practice that govern these practitioners. Any agreements between the physician and the practitioner, however, are not the focus of this inspection. These agreements are unique to each physician and practitioner. In order to effectively evaluate these agreements as a control mechanism, they would have to be reviewed on a case by case basis. That level of scrutiny was beyond the scope of this inspection. It is also not the purpose of this inspection to evaluate the benefits or disadvantages of services performed by non-physician practitioners.

METHODOLOGY

Data were collected from three sources: the State scope of practice; Medicare billing data from the years 1997, 1998, and 1999; and interviews with carrier medical directors.

Scopes of practice. We collected scopes of practice for physician assistants in 50 States and Washington, D.C., and both the advanced practice scope and the registered nursing scope for clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners in 50 States. First, we reviewed a sample of State scopes to determine common characteristics of responsibilities. From these common characteristics we developed a review document for all scopes. This document included educational requirements, written collaborative agreements, Board oversight, physician supervision, a statement of scope, and particular services such as taking histories, diagnosis, therapy, and treatment/ care plan development. We reviewed each scope of practice and noted the services allowed in each State for each specialty. We also reviewed the requirements for both the supervisory and

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collaborative agreements between the physician and the non-physician practitioner as well as the prescriptive authority addressed in each State’s scope of practice. See Appendix E for more details.

Billing Data. We analyzed Medicare Part B services data for each of the three specialties from the Medicare Part B Extract and Summary System (BESS) for 1997, 1998, and 1999. All service and charge data mentioned in this report reflect data for “allowed services” and “allowed charges.” We also examined settings and procedure codes. We concentrated on billing changes that have occurred since BBA97 and analyzed procedures with high increases in allowed services and/ or allowed charges. We also looked at procedures considered vulnerable by carrier medical directors.

Medical Director Practices. We interviewed the 41 carrier medical directors from all the Medicare Part B carrier contractors. Our interviews focused on the process of reviewing non-physician practitioner claims and any changes in that process since BBA97. We asked about carrier screens and edits, use of State scopes of practice, and any concerns or potential vulnerabilities. The carriers also forwarded any of their non- physician practitioner medical review policies and any instructions sent to them by HCFA.

This inspection was conducted in accordance with the Quality Standards for Inspections issued by the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

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F I N D I N G S

Non-Physician Practitioner Billings Are Rising Rapidly

It appears that the Balanced Budget Act is having a substantial effect on non-physician practitioner billings to the Medicare program. paid for 5.2 million non-physician practitioner services (See Chart 1). increase since 1997, the year BBA97 expanded settings and allowed nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists to bill Medicare directly in additional settings. same period, allowed charges also increased nearly fourfold from $55 million to $202 million (See Appendix A). to” prior to 1997, we were unable to determine how much of the increase in billings was due to real growth in services and how much was due to simple changes in billing practices.

Chart 1: Non-Physician Practitioner Allowed Services (in millions)

Source: Medicare BESS data

In 1999, non-physician practitioners billed about half of their services in an office setting and another quarter of services were billed from skilled nursing or nursing facilities. top three services billed in 1999 were office or outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, subsequent nursing facility care for the evaluation and management of the new or established patient (25 minutes), and subsequent nursing facility care for the evaluation and management of the new or established patient (15

In 1999, BESS data show that Medicare This is a fourfold

During this

Because some of these services had been billed as “incident

The

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minutes), comprising almost a third of all services billed. details on billing data.

Although clinical nurse specialists have shown the greatest proportional increases in services, nurse practitioners and physician assistants account for most of the overall services in 1999 (See Chart 2).

Chart 2: Allowed Services 1999

Source: Medicare BESS data

State Scopes of Practice Provide Little Guidance to Carriers Our analysis found that the State scopes of practice are broad and as a result provide little guidance that carriers can use to process claims. collaboration with a physician which may have the effect of either limiting or expanding the services that non-physician practitioners may perform.

Generally, State Nursing Boards set the scope of practice for clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, while State Medical Boards set the physician assistant scope. States also defer to a national certifying body’s scope, such as that of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which similarly lacks detail (see Appendix C). Characteristics of the scopes are critical because they control what non-physician practitioners can do in their State and thus what Medicare will reimburse. to note that scopes were designed to implement medical practice and not to direct Medicare reimbursement.

See Appendix B for more

Scopes, as well as Medicare, call for

Some

It is important

Most scopes contain a statement about the responsibilities, a list of allowed duties, education requirements, supervisory/collaborative agreement requirements, and prescriptive authority. The scopes differ in the amount of detail given to each element. Additionally, with the exception of few physician assistant scopes, we found that no scope explicitly identifies services that these practitioners are not allowed to perform. Using just the scopes, it is difficult to determine if non-physician practitioner could provide highly complex services and be reimbursed by the Medicare program. Several carrier medical directors note that relying on the scopes to determine services that can be billed to the program may be problematic. One medical director comments that the scopes are “so vast and vague. [Non-physician practitioners] can do anything that is assigned to them.” A few medical directors suggest that more clarifications of duties are needed to improve the way their claims are reviewed.

Also, non-physician practitioners may provide services if they are delegated by the collaborating or supervising physician (as mentioned, the nurse practitioner and the clinical nurse specialist must collaborate with a physician, and a physician assistant must be supervised by a physician). For example, if a nurse practitioner working in collaboration with a cardiologist is directed to make a complex diagnosis, there is nothing in the scopes of practice preventing such a practice. In fact, States generally have a vague definition for acts such as diagnosis.

Scopes in 11 States provide guidance for an agreement between the clinical nurse specialist and/or the nurse practitioner and the collaborating physician. In some cases the guidance for the collaborative agreements merely contains a definition of collaboration. More State scopes provide requirements of what the physician’s supervisory role is in relation to a physician assistant. For example, some physician assistant scopes may require a supervisory agreement to provide specific information about the availability of the supervising physician, type of supervision required (physical, electronic, or continuous), or whether the agreement must be in writing. However, in the case of either the collaborative or the supervisory agreement, details that are not addressed within the State scope are left to the discretion of the physician and the non-physician practitioner.

Scopes do not fully describe non-physician practitioner responsibilities

The scopes typically contain a broad statement of responsibilities. In these statements, 25 States allow nurse practitioners to provide health care according to their own area of specialization; and in 19 States, physician’s assistants may provide health care as approved by State Nursing Board. In addition to the broad statement, State sco

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