Date Of Service

What Does Date Of Service Mean?

The date of service is the specific time at which a patient has been given medical treatment. It is recorded for billing purposes and as an item in a patient's medical record. It also matters for insurance purposes, since health insurers base their reimbursement or payment on the date of service, along with other billing factors.

Insuranceopedia Explains Date Of Service

Medical billing is an intricate process, especially with health insurance involved. It starts even before the insured is given treatment.

The insured first furnishes insurance data to the health facility and this data, in turn, is verified to see whether the policy covers the treatment that the insured seeks. If it does, complete data about the treatment is given to the insurer, along with the date of service.

The time of reimbursement or payment from the insurer doesn't just depend on how fast it was given data about the treatment but also whether the information sent through a computer is compatible with the system that the insurer uses.