Assistant Billing

There are two ways you can perform assistant billing in Gentu:

• Billing as an assistant - where you were the assistant at surgery, and you are billing the assistant item(s) only.
  
  
• Billing for an assistant - where you are billing on behalf of the assistant surgeon, in addition to billing your own surgical item(s).

Before you begin

Before you create an assistant billing invoice:

• Add the other surgeon to the Address Book. To do this, open the Address Book and select Add > Practitioner.
• Add the practitioner's details here, including their Provider Number.
• Ensure the Assists at Procedures checkbox is ticked for the practitioner.
  

Invoicing as an Assistant

To invoice as an assistant (where you were the assistant surgeon):

1. Create a new invoice for the patient, selecting the relevant Account Type and Claim Type (if applicable). Add the surgical item number/s.
2. Click the Assist Item button.
3. In the Assist Item window, select the Assistant radio button to mark your provider as the assistant. 
4. Use the search box to search for and select the primary surgeon from your Address Book.
   
5. Select the fee type. For example, this may be one-fifth (1/5) of the surgeon's fee, or the Private Fund fee if it is a No Gap account.
6. Click Add.
7. Gentu will replace the surgical items on the invoice with the relevant assistant item. The service text containing all necessary details will be added automatically.
8. Proceed with the invoice as normal, i.e. Save or Claim it.

Invoicing for an Assistant

To invoice for an assistant (where you were the primary surgeon):

1. Create a new invoice for the patient, selecting the relevant Account Type and Claim Type (if applicable).
2. Click the Assist Item button.
3. Select the Surgeon radio button to mark your practitioner as the principal surgeon.
4. Use the search bar to search for and select the assistant surgeon.
   
5. Select the assistant fee type, then press Add.
6. Gentu will add the appropriate assistant item to the invoice, with the relevant service text automatically included.
7. Proceed with the invoice as normal, i.e. Save or Claim it.

Assistant billing items

• Using the Assist Item button is the only way to add general surgical assistant items to the invoice. You will not be able to manually add a 51300 or a 51303 to an invoice or to a Billing Set.
• The exception to this rule is for the caesarean birth items, 51306 and 51309. Caesarean assist items can be manually added to an invoice.
• The Assist Item function does not cover caesarean assist items, so manually adding them is the only way to include them on an invoice. This will likely change in future as we streamline assistant billing further.

Billing a caesarean birth assistant item (51306 or 51309)

To bill a 51306 or 51309:

1. Search for and add the 51306 or 51309 to the invoice.
2. Click the flag icon to the left of the item to open the Overrides window.
3. In the Overrides window, under the Service Text box, type in the other surgeon's name and their Provider Number.
4. If you are billing as the assistant, then you should also add the surgical item numbers to the item service text.
5. Proceed with the invoice as normal.

• When billing a 51306; you can bill this item as part of an electronic health fund claim or a Medicare/DVA claim. 
• For item 51309; due to the derivative fee scale for item 51309, it is not possible to submit this item as part of an electronic claim from Gentu.
  
  • As the item does not have a gazetted rebate amount, Gentu will not allow it to be sent as part of a claim.
  • Instead you would need to manually calculate the fee, enter this into the fee box for the item, and then print the invoice and send it manually to the fund.