Reimbursement for clinical nutrition services.
The process for achieving reimbursement for clinical nutrition services can be generalized into three steps--identification, documentation, and administrative framework. Even though factors involved in developing a system of reimbursement may vary from institution to institution, our experience suggests that these three steps will remain constant. First, billable services need to be distinguished from routine services. Second, a vigorous effort to document both the delivery of nutrition care and its benefit to the consumer must be undertaken. Third, administrative mechanisms that provide for appropriate allocation of costs and revenue from clinical nutrition services must be established. Using this process at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, we itemize a number of inpatient nutrition services, for which we bill and are reimbursed as separate items independent of the bed charge.
D002641:Chicago; D006753:Hospital Records; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms