Are you due to undergo a medical procedure? You’ll likely receive an itemized healthcare bill – especially if you intend to claim for the procedure with your health insurance provider.
If you’re feeling slightly confused by the information detailed on your bill, you can always ask your healthcare provider for advice on how to read your receipt. Alternatively, stay with us as we take you through what itemized healthcare bills are, and how to make sense of them.
Itemized Healthcare Bills: What Are They?
Sometimes referred to as a superbill, an itemized healthcare receipt will list all of the services you’ve received from a healthcare provider during your medical treatment. It also itemizes any medical supplies you’ve been required to purchase or pay for as part of your treatment.
To clarify the instances in which you may receive an itemized superbill, these are most often provided after receiving treatment delivered by Out-of-Network (OON) healthcare providers. Some examples of OON healthcare providers can include:
- Licensed therapists, psychologists, or counselors.
- Dentists or other types of dental practitioners.
- Chiropractors or osteopaths.
- A variety of licensed nurse practitioners, including those who have been accredited through an online nurse practitioner program.
As itemized healthcare bills will usually list all of your accessed healthcare services and purchased medical supplies individually, they are instrumental in helping patients better understand the breakdown of the individual financial costs of their medical treatment. This is also highly advantageous when submitting a claim to a health insurance provider, as it enables accurate review and analysis of all costs associated with the medical procedure a patient is claiming for. This is usually when an itemized superbill is required, as itemized healthcare receipts are most often created specifically for reference by health insurance companies or other third parties.
Needless to say, however, an itemized healthcare receipt can be quite complex due to the comprehensive information it includes. For this reason, reading a superbill can be somewhat overwhelming, and confusing to the untrained eye. Let us take you through an example of what an itemized healthcare bill can look like, and also, clarify how to make sense of one.
Superbill Sample: Understanding an Itemized Healthcare Receipt
The appearance of your superbill or itemized healthcare receipt may vary depending on your healthcare provider. But, in general, the fields that are included on an itemized healthcare bill will usually include:
Patient Details
This field will specify the patient’s contact information and personal identifiers – such as their name, postal and/or email address, contact phone number, and also, their date of birth.
Healthcare Provider Information
This part of the bill will outline the healthcare provider’s details – including the clinic or practice name, the postal address of the practice’s office location, as well as their National Provider Identifier (NPI) – the unique identification number each registered healthcare provider is issued upon registration.
Medical Procedure Dates, Costs, and Details
Here, the name of the medical procedures, supplies used, and any other healthcare services that have been provided by the medical practitioner will be listed, alongside the dates they were performed or undertaken. The financial cost of each healthcare service, procedure, or medical supply will also be individually itemized in this section of the superbill.
Procedure Codes (CPT)
Finally, an itemized healthcare superbill will usually include the relevant Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes that are associated with each medical procedure, supply, or healthcare service that has been provided to the patient.
If you’ve just undergone a medical procedure, but you’re finding your itemized healthcare bill slightly confusing to read – don’t worry, you’re not alone. Itemized medical receipts are highly comprehensive, and it can be challenging to make heads or tails of them – especially when it comes to the medical terminology and procedure codes they outline.
Despite this, once you know how to read a superbill, it becomes less confusing. Making sense of the different information fields is often the most challenging part. But, now that we’ve taken you through some of the most common superbill inclusions – patient and healthcare provider information, medical procedure costs and details, and CPT codes – you should now be able to read each section of your itemized healthcare bill with ease.