Medicare services regarding inpatient and outpatient clinics and diagnosis are given at a number of places. These include various institutes, physicians’ offices, hospitals, and Individual Diagnostic Testing Facilities. It has also set certain standards for Individual Diagnostic Testing Facilities (IDTF).

What is an IDTF?

An Individual Diagnostic Testing Facility is an official provider of Medicare services which operates independently. It does not have any association with any hospital or physician’s office. The only involvement of a physician is in the diagnostic procedures which are required by Medicare policy. It serves various testing and diagnostic functions which include overnight oximetry testing, etc.
It can be either a fixed site or a mobile entity. The independence from association with physician’s office and hospital is subjective to:

• The physician practice provided by the IDTF is in no way in ownership of a single or multiple physicians.
• The physician practice provided by the IDTF is in no way in ownership of a hospital. 
• The bills are charged for diagnostic services by the IDTF, not for providing any kind of patient services.
• The locations of performing the diagnostic tests and their interpretation are different the place where patient treatment is provided by the practice physicians. 

Medicare Performance Standards for Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF)

Medicare approval is extremely crucial for an Individual Diagnostic Testing Facility to operate. Some performance standards are also set to make sure that the IDTFs operate in the manner that is up to the requirements of Medicare services. Some of the most crucial requirements include:

• The IDTF must be operated in a manner that is compliant with the licensure and regulatory requirements set by Federal Government and the state in which the IDTF functions. 
• The information provided in the enrollment application must be complete by all means and should be authentic.
• The physical facility should be made on a site with proper address and at a proper site. For this purpose, locations of a hotel, motel, or post office box, commercial mail box, etc would not be accepted. 
• The IDTF also must have a primary phone number. 
• Direct solicitation of patients is completely prohibited.
• The standards set by Medicare must be openly put for review for patients by the IDTF. 

IDTFs are very helpful particularly for overnight oximetry testing for the purpose of facilitating with screening, diagnosis, and observation of patients who are doubted to have a disease or health problem that is caused by low levels of oxygen saturation. For this reason, overnight oximetry IDTFs operate under the approval of Medicare and provide services in accordance with the policy set by it. These conditions mostly include people having severe lung or respiratory diseases, sleep apnea, hypoxia, etc.