Food and drug production

What are the guidelines for calculating the production for food and prescription refills?

"Food isn't included in production numbers," says Veterinary Economics Hospital Management Editor Mark Opperman, CVPM, owner of VMC Inc., a veterinary consulting firm in Evergreen, Colo. "Production is defined as income generated for products and services that the doctor is actually involved in delivering. But food, boarding, and grooming are never included unless there are professional services rendered while the animal is boarding, such as examinations or laboratory procedures."

In regard to prescriptions, Opperman suggests setting up a separate doctor code such as Dr. Smith-RX. You'd use this code when a prescription is filled over-the-counter. "If a prescription is filled during an outpatient office visit, the doctor would indeed receive credit for that prescription," he says. "But if a client comes in and just gets a refill and the doctor isn't involved in the delivery, the doctor would not get production credit. Setting up this additional provider code makes it much easier to track this issue."