Re: INRs

[Guest guest]

I use the one by INRatio. It is not as accurate as venipuncture machines, but reasonably close. Medicare reimburses separately, you wind up making between $5 and $10 per test after the expenses for the strips. You can charge for a 99211 (or a 99212 if you get involved with face to face medication adjustments). Will probably pay for itself in 6-12 months depending on the size of your geriatric population. Patients universally love the convenience. Along with A1C those are the two inhouse tests I do the most. RecommendedMelody Pratt wrote: Any one using a portable in house INR meter? Is Medicare reimbersing or do they bundle it? thanks, Melody Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

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[Guest guest]

I use the INRatio machine, too, but in our area reimbursement is

about $5.00 -$6.00 and the strips cost $4.00. Once every 6 – 8 times

I do the test, I need to repeat it on a new $4.00 strip because of not getting

a large enough drop of blood on exactly the right spot on the strip, and

getting an error message. I have found the strips quite accurate, as each

strip has two controls built in.

If I were charging a 99211 for the visits, I would consider it a

money-maker, but most of my patients would prefer to go to the lab to avoid a

co-pay, so I limit the in-house testing to when I feel they actually need a

visit.

I do lots of Cholestech lipid and AST/ALT tests, Hemoglobin A1c,

and Microalbumin/Creatinine in-house during visits, because of the nature of my

practice, and each of these adds a little bit of profit to the visit, depending

on the insurance the patient has, but none of them would be financially worth

doing outside of a visit. The convenience, the ability to show the

patients the results on the spot, and the ability to get life-style change commitments

and to make treatment decisions at the time of visit make it worthwhile for

me.

T. , MD

Sammamish Diabetes and Lipid Clinic, PLLC

A Medical Home for Patients with Cardiovascular Risk

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of postrio

Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:04 AM

To:

Subject: Re: INRs

I use the one by INRatio. It is not as accurate as venipuncture

machines, but reasonably close. Medicare reimburses separately, you wind

up making between $5 and $10 per test after the expenses for the strips.

You can charge for a 99211 (or a 99212 if you get involved with face to face

medication adjustments). Will probably pay for itself in 6-12 months

depending on the size of your geriatric population. Patients

universally love the convenience. Along with A1C those are the two

inhouse tests I do the most. Recommended

Melody Pratt wrote:

Any one using a portable in house INR meter?

Is Medicare reimbersing or do they bundle it?

thanks,

Melody

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo

your homepage.

Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find

them fast with Yahoo! Search.

[Guest guest]

We have never bought our INR machines. There has always been a promotion that if we commit to purchasing 5 or 6 packs, of 25 tests each, the machine is gratis. As the technology has changed we have upgraded our unit about 3 or 4 times, always with similiar terms. We usually can convince the sales person to spread our commitment over

6 - 12 months so there has not been a problem with expiration dates.

We have approx. 20 patients who are tested at the office (between two doctors). The tests costs about the same as the INR reimbursement. We also charge a 99211 or 99212 along with INR. Convenience and decreased phone calls after hours and improved control make it well worth it for us.

5 or 6 of our patients still prefer to go to the lab. For them, we are now charging an anticoagulation management fee every three months. There are new CPT codes for this. Some insurances are reimbursing, Medicare does not.

Hope this helps.

Mike Safran

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