Test and Orders: Orders

Requisitions and ambiguous orders

  • Requisitions must be designed to ensure that ordering physicians can choose tests that are medically necessary for their patients.
    • Requisitions should contain reminders about Medicare rules of medical necessity and list the contents of panels and profiles.
    • Requisitions must provide a place for the physician to include diagnosis (ICD9-CM) codes.
    • Physicians should be encouraged to use only the requisitions supplied by the laboratory to order tests.
  • Ambiguous or unclear test orders
    • When the orders for a test are not absolutely clear, the laboratory must contact the ordering physician to clarify the orders before performing and billing for the test.
    • The laboratory cannot guess at the order.
    • The laboratory cannot perform and bill for tests that are not specifically ordered.
    • The laboratory cannot change a physician order without contacting the physician.
    • In any case where specimen integrity or patient care will be compromised by a delay in testing follow the policies the laboratory has established for such cases.

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