advance beneficiary notice


Advance Beneficiary Notice

A document signed by a patient accepting responsibility for paying for a test or diagnostic service which the patient’s primary care provider thinks is appropriate, but which Medicare may not think is appropriate under its “reasonable and necessary” standard.

ad·vance ben·e·fic·i·ary no·tice

(ABN) (ăd-vans' ben'ĕ-fish'ē-ar-ē nō'tis) A document signed by or on behalf of a patient that authorizes a care provider to bill the patient for services that Medicare may consider not medically necessary and may thereby decline to cover.
Synonym(s): notice of noncoverage.