In regards to Podiatrists not getting paid for routine foot care, Medicare has strict guidelines as to what criteria a patient must meet in order to have the routine foot care covered. Routine foot care is covered by most insurance companies in the initial office visit with the podiatrist. However, for subsequent routine foot care visits, the patient must meet the Medicare guidelines in order for Medicare to pay for that visit. If they do not meet the criteria, the patient must pay out of pocket for the routine foot care visit since Medicare won't pay for it. When a patient does meet Medicare guidelines for routine foot care every 9 weeks approximately, the Podiatrist usually bills the routine foot care visit under the diagnosis Diabetes with Peripheral Neuropathy and PVD. If the patient did not have Diabetes, there would be no other diagnosis code that a Podiatrist can bill the routine foot care visit under (the only exception may be onychocryptosis or paronychia). Medicare will not reimburse for routine foot care under the diagnosis of onychomycosis by itself. One can be creative in trying to bill the non covered routine foot care visit under the diagnosis of pain in limb. On the other hand, if a PCP were to render routine foot care (whether or not patient meet Medicare guidelines), the visit would probably be covered because PCP can bill the patient for other medical issues as part of the E&M code and include the routine foot care as part of the visit. However, very few PCP perform routine foot care. For example, in a situation where a patient does not meet Medicare guidelines for routine foot care, the PCP can still get paid for the routine foot care by billing the insurance for follow up evaluation of hypertension. While the PCP renders the foot care, the PCP also check the patient's blood pressure to see if the hypertensive medications are working or not. Hence, the PCP can still get paid for the visit. Hopefully, this will explain why sometimes a PCP can still get paid for the routine foot care, whether the patient meets the insurance guidelines or not.
Anyways, im actually inspiring on going to dental school, but podiatry also interests me. Pros and cons folks? Like salary and job outlook (Is there a need for podiatrists? unlike chiropracters for example)? Different specializations? Difficulty of admissions? Can DAT be substituted (really dont feel like taking MCAT and DAT)? And any other basic pros and cons? Thanx everyone!
Seriously though, do you have an example of one such instance? And for that matter, what doctor, besides FP and ER, doesn't depend on referrals?
