This is an excerpt from a member-only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe.

Although physician extenders (PE) must abide by specific rules and regulations regarding the services that they can perform and bill for, adding such providers to your practice could increase revenue and enhance patient flow. "Once you have a fine-tuned, compliant physician-extender program, it's amazing, the dollars that follow," said Suzan Hvizdash, CPC, CPC-EMS, CPC-EDS, physician educator at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a senior auditor for the Coding and Reimbursement Network, Inc. Hvizdash offered advice on PEs during the American Academy of Professional Coders conference in St. Louis in April.