I would appreciate any help in interpreting the guidelines regarding billing for peritoneal dialysis training. My question specifically is: Are physicians allowed to bill for peritoneal dialysis training if the training is provided by another provider? Here is a scenario to better stage my question: A physician does his rounds and sees one of his patients at the dialysis center. The doc orders peritoneal dialysis training for this patient, but the training will be provided by allied staff at the dialysis unit (the staff is employed by the dialysis center, not the physician's office). Can the physician bill for the peritoneal dialysis training that the patient will be receiving? I have sought several different opinions about this -- some say yes and others say no. One of the people who said yes said that there was a regulation instituted several years ago to incent physicians who at least enrolled patients in peritoneal dialysis training, whether they provided the training or not, but he is not sure whether that billing guideline still exists. I would really appreciate any feedback you could provide....
Thank you.

The doctor can bill $500 for supervision of the training. The clinic will bill the PD composite rate plus $12 (CAPD) or $20 (CCPD). You can read about this and more in the Medicare FAQs (separate ones for patients and professionals) on Home Dialysis Central (http://www.homedialysis.org)