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Triage by definition is non-billable. It was made even clearer in the Telehealth regs that came out. We got around this by hiring Telehealth Nurse Practitioners who complete an actual TH visit with the patient instead of it being reviewed by triage for many complaints...so, as long as it can be booked with them within a certain timeframe, we bypass triage. This has allowed us to convert some calls into direct revenue, and also improve triage call flow through the call center. Otherwise, triage is extremely expensive because it is non-revenue generating work. Yes, there is cost avoidance by hopefully reducing the likelihood of medical legal liability---but no direct billing for the nurse (unless you are a call center that offers triage as a service and you are billing the entity who contracted for your service). 

You can track visits created by your triage nurses--but again, I think you will find, depending on call duration, complexity, etc. it is still expensive, and difficult to cover the full overhead. 

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Mary Blankson DNP APRN FNP-C FAAN
Chief Nursing Officer
Community Health Center, Inc.
Middletown CT
(860)227-5432

Original Message:
Sent: 03-15-2024 12:18
From: Tania Murrell
Subject: Billing for Triage calls

Triage by definition is non-billable. It was made even clearer in the Telehealth regs that came out. We got around this by hiring Telehealth Nurse Practitioners who complete an actual TH visit with the patient instead of it being reviewed by triage for many complaints...so, as long as it can be booked with them within a certain timeframe, we bypass triage. This has allowed us to convert some calls into direct revenue, and also improve triage call flow through the call center. Otherwise, triage is extremely expensive because it is non-revenue generating work. Yes, there is cost avoidance by hopefully reducing the likelihood of medical legal liability---but no direct billing for the nurse (unless you are a call center that offers triage as a service and you are billing the entity who contracted for your service). 

You can track visits created by your triage nurses--but again, I think you will find, depending on call duration, complexity, etc. it is still expensive, and difficult to cover the full overhead.