The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and commercial insurance carriers, such as Anthem BCBS and UnitedHealthcare, have increased their requests for medical records for dates of services to ensure not only proper CPT coding and billing, but that the services provided meet the definition of medical necessity and required the unique skills of a therapist, or an assistant under the supervision of a therapist, to provide. Unfortunately, providers are not submitting all of the required information and thus, are being denied even when the daily note does support the CPT codes and units billed. In this article, I

A question I often receive is can a physical therapist (PT) student, physical therapist assistant (PTA) student, occupational therapist (OT), occupational therapy assistant (OTA) student or speech-language pathologist (SLP) student document in the medical record for a Medicare beneficiary receiving outpatient therapy services and if yes, what are the co-signature requirements? In this article, I will answer these 2 questions plus a third question applying it to Medicare Advantage and commercial insurance carriers. QuestionCan a PT student, PTA student, OT student, OTA student or SLP student document in the medical record for a Medicare beneficiary receiving outpatient therapy services? Answer