Military Health System

Services commonly furnished by employees in physicians’ offices or clinics which are either rendered without charge or included in the physicians’ bills are referred to as services furnished incident to a physician’s professional services. This means that the services are furnished as an integral, although incidental, part of the physician’s personal professional services in the course of diagnosis or treatment of an injury or illness.

Services rendered by employees (e.g., aides, technicians, attendants) of an authorized independent individual professional provider (hereafter referred to as an authorized provider) are subject to the following criteria:

The services of a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) or Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) shall not be billed as services incident to or under the supervision of a physician or other allied health professional because physicians and other allied health professionals do not meet the qualifications for a licensed registered physical therapist or licensed registered occupational therapist. See Section 3.16 for PTAs and Section 3.17 for OTAs.