Carefully consider rules around signature requirements when a referral partner is offering another physician’s signature in place of the appropriate physician.
Palmetto GBA, a Medicare administrative contractor for 16 states, sent a message to agencies regarding signature rules, stressing physicians need to sign their own notes.
The rendering practitioner for the face-to-face encounter, author of the encounter note, must sign his or her own note. Another practitioner regardless of affiliation or relationship, cannot sign an encounter note for the original author, Palmetto notes.