Brief Overview
This guide explains how you may create an assistant invoice, where a surgeon within your practice acted as the assistant to an external surgeon. Medicare may reject the assistant claim if they have not yet received the main surgeon's claim, so we would recommend billing for the assistant after this is complete.
You may only use assistant billing for inpatient services.
Short Version
We would highly recommend reading the Before you Begin section below, before you follow these instructions for the first time.
- Create a blank invoice.
- Add the main surgeon in the external surgeon panel.
- Insert the surgical item numbers.
- Add the assistant item.
- Save and/or submit the claim.
Instructions:
Before you Begin:
Before you may create an invoice for an assistant, the provider must be registered to your location with Medicare. When creating a user for your assistant, it is recommended that you create an email address for them that suggests the user is only for assistant billing purposes (such as assistant@practicename.com.au). This user is only created for the purpose of billing for assistants, and will not attract any additional cost to your Clinic to Cloud subscription.
Note: You cannot bill on behalf of an assistant that is not in your practice. If the assistant is external to your practice and not in Clinic to Cloud they will need to use their own billing software.
Medicare only allows a provider number to be registered to one billing software, so the assistant must use the provider number in only one billing software at a time. If an assistant registers a provider number for your practice software that is in use elsewhere, Medicare will cut off their ability to bill through the initial software.
Follow the instructions below to add assistant items to your invoice:
1. Open a new invoice for the patient.
A) Highlight the patient in the Scheduler screen and click on the Invoice icon
Or
B) Click on the Invoice icon, search for and select the patient, then select the Doctor.
2. Click the Edit (pencil) icon under the External Surgeon heading.
3. Type in the name of the main surgeon, or click the Add (plus) icon to add them into the Contacts list.
4. Click Items to add the main surgeon's surgical item numbers (external surgeon).
5. Add the items by typing in the Item Number field, or alternatively searching by description. Click Save when complete.
6. Click the Add Assistant Item button, and select the appropriate item/s from the list provided.
Note: This person must be a user in the practice.
7. The assistant will pre-fill from the appointment or information you entered when raising the invoice. Select the relevant item numbers from those provided, and click Add Item.
8. The assistant item will be added, with the surgical assistant's provider number added to the Note field. The Assistant Name will also be displayed. 
9. Complete the remaining information on the invoice. Further information on this can be found within the appropriate article within this page.