User Guide — Ambulance Billing for Hospitals

1. Display the Departments page: On the Main Menu, click the Settings icon . Under ADMIN, click Billing. In the Task Bar, under PRACTICE LINKS — Departments, click Departments.

2. Cost center type — Select Ambulance Services.
3. Name — Enter a name for this department.
4. Address and related fields — Enter the complete address information for the department as it should appear on CMS-1500 Box 32.  
   Note: To comply with CMS requirements, the ZIP code field requires nine digits. You can use the adjacent Check address link to obtain the Zip+4 ZIP code.
5. Hospital department — Select Y.
6. Place of service type — Select Ambulance — Air or Water [42] or Ambulance — Land [41].
7. Type of bill — Select 13 — Hospital Outpatient.
8. Allowed levels of care — Check the Outpatient box.
9. Provider group — Select the provider group that uses this ambulance service.
10. Chart group — Select the chart group associated with the selected provider group.
11. Click Save.

 

Before you create an ambulance claim, you must add the ambulance charge codes 0540-0549 to your Charge Master.

1. Display the Charge Master page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Billing. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Charge Master, click Charge Master.
2. Next to the Charge Codes heading, click Add charge code.
   Additional fields appear.
3. Charge code — Enter the code to add.
4. Department — Select the department that will use the new code.
5. Effective date — Enter the effective date for the new code.
6. Expiration date — Enter the expiration date for the new code.
7. Description — Enter a description for the new code.
8. Invoice label — Enter an invoice label for the new code.
9. Price — Enter a price for the new code (with the Fixed price option selected), or leave the price blank and select the Set at charge entry option.
10. Revenue code — Enter the revenue code for this charge.
11. HCPCS code — Enter the HCPCS code for this charge, or select the HCPCS entered at coding option.
12. HCPCS multiplier — Enter the number of units for this charge item.
13. Fractional billing — Select this option to allow fractional billing for this item.
14. Click Save.

 

For patients who arrive at the hospital by ambulance, you can create an "ambulance visit" to bill for the ambulance service.

 

First, create the hospital visit or the ER visit, and follow the check-in workflow as you normally would. Once the patient has been checked in, you can create the "ambulance visit."

 

You can then add charges for the ambulance visit using the Visit - Billing page.

 

Finally, you can discharge the ambulance visit using the Patient Access page. You can do this before the patient has been discharged from the hospital.

 

1. Create a hospital or ER visit, and complete the check-in process.
2. Display the patient's Quickview.
3. On the Patient Actions Bar at the top of the page, click Visits, and select New Hospital Visit.
4. On the Registration tab, Check-in Details.
5. Level of care — Select Outpatient.
6. Department — Select the ambulance department.
7. Complete the remaining check-in fields as needed.
8. Click Done with Registration.
9. Click Check in Patient.

1. Display the Visit - Billing page: On the patient's Quickview, scroll down to the Hospital Visits heading, and click view for the ambulance visit you need.
2. Click Add Charges.
   The Charge Entry page appears.
   
3. Add a charge code or use the search icon to look up a charge code or description.
   When you enter an ambulance code (0540-0549), then the Qty. column changes to Mileage. If there are codes for mileage and quantities, the Qty. column changes to Mileage/Qty.
4. Enter the exact mileage for the ambulance visit trip. (athenaOne will automatically round the mileage to a whole number on the claim).
   
5. Click Save.
   

 

After the charges are entered for the ambulance visit, you can complete the ambulance billing workflow. In the Patient Access view, click the discharge button. You can click that button at any time (independent of the associated hospital or ER visit).