Teaching Physician Services

30.2 - Teaching Physician Services (Rev. 1, 10-01-03) B3-2020.7, B3-8201, and B3-15016 Part B covers services that attending physicians (other than interns and residents) render in the teaching setting to individual patients. These include such services as reviewing the patient’s history and physical exams, personally examining the patient within a reasonable time after admission, confirming or revising diagnoses, determining the course of treatment to be followed, assuring that any supervision needed by interns or residents is furnished, and making frequent review of the patient’s progress. The medical record must contain signed or countersigned notes by the physician which show that the physician personally reviewed the patient’s diagnoses, visited the patient at more critical times of the illness, and discharged the patient. For other services, such as surgical procedures, notes in the record by interns, residents, or nurses, which indicate that the physician was physically present when the service was rendered, are sufficient. Note that, in order to pay a teaching physician under Part B, the teaching physician must at least be present during the key portion of a service rendered by a resident or intern. When a resident does a visit without teaching physician presence, the teaching physician must repeat the key portions of the visit and have his own documentation in order to get paid.