mediloop
Billing codes

Revenue code 0270

Medical and surgical supplies

The supplies line: gloves, gauze, tubing, catheters, splint material, surgical kits. 0270 is the general code; 0272 is sterile supplies, 0278 is implants. On an itemized bill each item appears with a quantity and a charge.

Watch out

Where this line goes wrong

Routine supplies should not be separately charged

Medicare and most payers treat basic items used on every patient (gloves, sheets, ordinary dressings) as part of the room or procedure charge. Separate line items for them are a known overbilling pattern and a fair thing to ask to have removed.

Kit plus contents

A surgical or IV start kit billed as one line, and its individual contents billed again as separate lines, is double billing. Look for a kit line and then for its components underneath it.

What to do

Check it, then ask

  1. 1

    Ask for the itemized bill and go through the supply lines one by one.

  2. 2

    Flag routine items (gloves, gowns, basic dressings) and ask why they are billed separately.

  3. 3

    Check that no kit's contents are also billed individually.

  4. 4

    For implants (0278), ask for the invoice cost if the charge is very large.

The full walkthrough for this kind of bill: Your bill came in above the estimate.

Think this line is wrong?

For $49, a mediloop specialist reads your itemized bill and EOB, if available, checks every code against the record and available pricing, flags the lines to dispute, and prepares a step-by-step plan with the exact wording to send. It appears in your account within 24 hours after all required documents arrive.

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Questions

People also ask

Is it normal to be charged for gloves?

It happens, but it is not normal under most payer rules, which treat them as part of the overhead already covered by the room or procedure charge. It is one of the easiest lines to get removed.

Sources

This page explains a billing code in general terms. It is not a coding, legal or medical opinion about your bill, and the code descriptions are mediloop's own plain-English summaries, not the official CPT descriptors, which are owned by the American Medical Association. Whether a charge was correct depends on the record of your visit and your payer's rules.