Re: Level three sonogram

From: Allen Worrall (jworrall@alaska.net)
Thu Jul 18 23:49:03 2002


Dianne, excellent remarks about reimbursement.

Regarding level one and two, I think those terms originated when the State of California started its MSAFP program. Some patients required a more comprehensive exam depending on the results of their screen and I think the State of California, since they were paying the bills, designated these two levels, and indicated who could do and be paid for a level 2 exam. Then, as you indicated, the less well trained or less interested practitioners of ultrasound began to say, "well, I am not culpable for missing that, because I was doing only a level one scan".

The editorial by Dr. Roy Filly explains it very well.

Allen

>----- Original Message -----
From: "Dianne Walkup" <diannewalkup@hotmail.com> To: "Multiple recipients of list ULTRASOUND" <ultrasound@mail.medispecialty.com> Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 8:14 PM Subject: Re: Level three sonogram

> Greetings, The level one, two and three labels are old and never made any
> sense in the first place. Im my opinion, a level one is an simply a poor
> excuse for not knowing what you are doing. The old monikers, however,
meant > that a level two was a comprehensive anatomy survey, and a level three was
a > fetal echocardiogram.
> Regarding the charges for these exams; as an expert high risk obstetrics
> Sonographer working for perinatologists that know OB ultrasound, we get
> reimbursed no more than the people who have no business picking up a
> transducer do. As two cases in point from this week alone: one was a
> referral because " the fetus is breathing and may be in serious distress",
> this was a 35 week normal fetus. Breathing motion is of course a welcome
> occupation for a 35 week fetus. Another this week was the one where the OB
> doc told the patient a week ago that both of her twins were "doing just
> fine, and here is one sucking his thumb and the other one grabbing its
> foot". We found only one baby at 18 weeks gestation with no evidence of a
> second. The referring doc said simply "I made a mistake."
> Needless to say, I will welcome being able to charge (and maybe even be
> properly reimbursed) for my standard exam which is always a comprehensive
> anatomic survey when the new CPT codes are in effect.
> Dianne Walkup, RDMS, RDCS
> mitakuye oyasin




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