B. Interpretation Provided Outside of the United States

Generally, Medicare will not pay for health care or supplies that are performed outside the United States (U.S.). The term “outside the U.S.” means anywhere other than the 50 states of the U.S., the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. See Pub. 100-02, chapter 16, section 60, for exceptions to the “outside the U.S.” exclusions.


Interpretation Provided Under Arrangement – To A Hospital


Separate TC and PC

If a diagnostic test which has a separate TC and PC is provided under arrangement to a hospital, the physician who reads the test can bill and be paid for the professional component. Both the technical and professional components of the test are also subject to the physician self-referral prohibition.

The appropriate POS code for the interpretation (or PC) is the setting where the beneficiary received the TC service. If the interpretation is performed in the physician’s office and the patient received the TC service in the provider-based outpatient hospital setting, the physician assigns POS code 22, for On Campus-Outpatient Hospital, or POS 19, for Off Campus-Outpatient Hospital, on the claim for the interpretation or PC.

Global Service

When a physician performs a diagnostic test under arrangement to a hospital and the test and the interpretation are not separately billable, the interpretation cannot be billed by the physician. In this scenario, the hospital is the only entity that can bill for the diagnostic test which encompasses the interpretation. There is no POS code for the interpretation since a physician claim is not generated.


D. Global Billing

Billing globally for services that are split into PC and TC components is only possible when the TC and the physician who provides the PC of the diagnostic service are furnished by the same physician or supplier entity and the PC and TC components are furnished within the same Medicare physician fee schedule payment locality. Merely applying the same POS code to the PC as that of the TC (as described in “A” above) does not permit global billing for any diagnostic procedure.