POS 34|Place of Service 34 in Medical Billing

POS 34 (Place of Service 34)

As remarked about POS is the contracted form of Place of Service.

Place of Service Code or POS is a two-digit referral code.

It is set down on health care professional claims (Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance) to indicate the backdrop in which a service was provided.

☑️Please take note of ~ The Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) perpetuate POS codes that are used throughout the healthcare industry.

Open out on POS 34

The referral code POS 34 denotes “Hospice“.

Hospice is a provision (other than a patient’s home) in which two types of services are provided,

  • Palliative
  • Supportive care

for last stage diseased patients and their families.

Intents of Hospice

The Place of Service 34 or POS 34 is used for the following services at Hospice that mainly aim at

  • Diminishing patients’ trauma
  • Comforting them so that they can be free of pain
  • Encouraging them to enjoy the remaining life with a touch of quality
  • Providing effortless support for the patient’s social, emotional and spiritual needs
  • Providing care(using some drugs) for relieving medical symptoms (pneumonia or bladder infections) as a part of treating the patient as a whole
  • Bereavement services

Also,

  • Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy if required
  • Medical supplies and equipment medical social services
  • Dietary counselling
  • and Other counselling

☑️Please take note of ~ Hospice doesn’t intend to cure the patient.

Locus of Hospice-

Hospice is generally a home-based program.

But it is also emplaced at

  • Nursing homes
  • Hospitals
  • Other freestanding facilities

Managing team includes

The squad encompasses

  • Doctors
  • Nurses
  • Social workers
  • Clergy
  • Respite care workers(so that the family can leave the venue for a while)

Last words!

Although Hospice care is often carried with Palliative care; but they are not synonymous.

POS 34 or Place of Service 34 is only accountable for ‘Hospice’ care barring the Palliative care cost.

The payment for hospice enrolment is made through the Part A benefit in insurance for,

  • all costs of daily care
  • and the services provided by the hospice-employed physician.

☑️Caution!!!

Take care of the code while enrolling to avoid faulty services.

Author

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  • NSingh (MBA, RCM Expert)

    The author and contributor of this blog "NSingh" is working in Medical Billing and Coding since 2010. He is MBA in marketing and Having vaste experience in different scopes of Medical Billing and Coding as AR-Follow-up, Payment Posting, Charge posting, Coding, etc.

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