PA excluded from WASBIRT billing

[aquafresh11]

My clinic got a grant from the state to implement WASBIRT screening a few years ago. Our grant is coming to an end and we will soon begin billing for these services. We are going through the training to become certified and be able to bill but I learned under WA medicaid a PA is not allowed to bill for this specific service, but an NP is, and so is a dental hygienist of all things! How the hell did this slip through? As it stands I have to get certified for this nonsense, provide the service, but can't bill for it. Granted I don't want to do it in the first place, but this just rubs me the wrong way.

Washington State billing brief_Sept2015_0.pdf

[rev ronin]

And this, folks, is why Medicaid sucks.  $21 for a 15 minute OR LONGER intervention?  That barely pays provider time+benefits for a PA if you can do 3 an hour, let alone facility charges.  Heck, for 25 minutes, I can just code for a 99214!

 

There is no such thing as a "physician's assistant" in Washington State law, BTW.  Someone needs to point that out to the issuing agency and have that verbiage corrected, at the very least.