Why did Medicare pay for interpreting a test while I was in the hospital?

September 20, 2009 by admin

Sometimes doctors give diagnostic and interpretative services to you in a hospital, even though you never see them. Many times a physician, unknown to you, reads your test and gives the results to your physician. Certain procedures combine a technical component and a physician component. The technical component is the performance of the procedure, which is billed to Medicare by the hospital. The physician component is the reading or interpretation of the test, which is billed to Medicare by the physician. Medicare pays for components of a test when the test is medically necessary.