Deceased Patient Billing: Quick Guide

MediRecords allows you to create and submit claims for services provided to deceased patients, provided they fall within Medicare’s claiming timeframes. While the process is slightly different to standard claiming, invoices can still be validated and submitted by running an OPV against the service date. This article explains the correct ways to run an OPV for a deceased patient, outlines important limitations to be aware of, and guides you through the steps to submit a manual invoice if electronic claiming is not successful.

Contents:

1. Running an OPV
2. Sending a Manual Claim
3. Troubleshooting
4. Related Reading 

Running an OPV

You are able to create and electronically claim a service for a deceased patient up until 2 years past the Service Date of the item as with all claims. You will need to run an OPV for a deceased patient against the Date of Service on the invoice, and once successful, you can claim as you normally would. This can be done from two locations.

From the invoice, hover over the 'i' icon next to the patient's name and click OPV:

From the invoice, hover over the 'i' icon next to the patient's name and click OPV. Alternatively, you can also run an OPV via the Unclaimed grid in the Claiming screen accessed through Accounts > Claiming, by clicking OPV directly on the grid when you have a patient selected.

Note: You won't be able to successfully run an OPV for a deceased patient via the demographics window. You will need to use a method outlined above.

Sending a Manual Claim

However, if you run into any issues claiming the invoice electronically, you can follow these steps to send a manual invoice to Medicare. 

1. Create the invoice as usual, but within the Bill to section select Other.

2. A text box will appear. Click the upside down arrow, and choose Contact.

3. Type in and select Department of Human Services (your system may have a variation of the format/spelling, e.g Dept).

Print the invoice and send it to Medicare via alternative means, e.g post.

For more information on managing deceased patient records, please see this article. 

Troubleshooting

I've entered a Date of Death in error and need to undo it

Cause: Once a Date of Death is recorded on a patient's record, it cannot be removed or changed from within MediRecords. This is by design, to protect the integrity of a patient's status once they've been marked deceased.

Resolution: Contact MediRecords Support as soon as possible. Correcting a Date of Death entered in error requires a direct correction from our team, it cannot be self-served through the interface.

I can't make clinical edits to a deceased patient's record

Cause: Recording a Date of Death marks the patient as Inactive, which prevents further clinical edits to their record. This is expected behaviour and protects the clinical record from being altered after a patient has passed away. Correspondence and invoicing access remain available.

Resolution: This is by design. If you believe the Date of Death was entered in error, see the entry above.

Related Reading

• Patient Claims - Medicare, DVA & ECLIPSE: Quick Guide
• Bulk Billing - Medicare & DVA: Quick Guide
• Invoice Management: Quick Guide
• Patient Claims - Medicare, DVA & ECLIPSE: Quick Guide