When the billing team cannot bill a call, they send the chart back with a question. An administrator at your agency reads it first, and if you are the person who can answer it, they pass it to you. This article covers what to do when that lands on you.

Before you start: You only see this if an administrator has sent you a specific chart. Billing never contacts crew members directly.

Finding the question

Open My PCRs. When something is waiting on you, a Billing Flags list appears above your usual list of reports. It shows the trip number, the date of service, the patient, what billing needs, and whether the chart is waiting on you or already back with your administrator.

You also get a notification when a chart is sent to you, so you do not have to keep checking.

Answering it

  1. In the Billing Flags list, click Respond on the row you want to answer.
  2. Read what billing asked for under What billing needs. If your administrator added a note of their own, it appears underneath.
  3. Type your answer in the box. Be specific about what you changed or where the information already is.
  4. Decide whether it belongs on the chart. Tick the box to add your answer to the chart as an addendum, or leave it unticked to send a note to your administrator only.
  5. Click Send to administrator.

Which box to tick

Add it as an addendum when the answer is part of the patient record: an explanation of why a treatment was given, a detail about the call that was missing from your narrative, anything a reviewer reading the chart later would need. Leave it as a note when you are only telling your administrator where to look, for example that the signature is on the second page.

Tip: If the chart itself needs fixing rather than explaining, tell your administrator in your answer. A submitted chart has to be unlocked by an administrator before it can be edited again.

What happens next

Your answer goes to the administrator who sent it to you, not straight to billing. They read it, adjust the wording if they need to, and send it back to the billing team with the corrected chart. The row disappears from your Billing Flags list once they have handled it.

Example

You come on shift and see one row in Billing Flags: a transport from three weeks ago, with "Medical necessity / narrative: no narrative on the chart." You remember the call. You click Respond, write out why the patient could not be transported any other way, tick the box to add it to the chart as an addendum, and click Send to administrator. Your administrator reads it that afternoon and sends the chart back to billing.

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