ICU documentation is critical: Reflect patient severity to get credit where credit is due
Medical Records Briefing, May 1, 2009
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Records Briefing.
Understand the definition of critical care
There are two general functions that we perform in an ICU. The first is the management of complex and ill patients to maintain their stability or prevent decompensation. The second is critical care. The difference between the two is significant from an ethical as well as a financial viewpoint. Critical care delivery refers to care for which a hospitalist or intensivist can bill a critical care CPT code in the 99291–99292 range, with code 99291 for the first hour and code 99292 for each subsequent half hour. We may report code 99292 more than once per day. Alternative codes that can be used for an ICU include subsequent visit codes (99231–99233) and consultation codes (99251–99263), as appropriate.
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Records Briefing.
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- Identify potential Medicaid RAC target areas
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- Capturing all necessary codes for IUD insertion and removal can be challenging
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- E-mailed
-
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- HIPAA Q&A: Level of encryption needed for email
- Q&A: Follow CMS' coding guidelines when using modifier -25
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- Catch up on what's new with injections and infusions
- CMS has reformulated payments for some bilateral procedures
- New conflicts of interest create new challenges
- Q/A. One injection code or two?
- ED-to-inpatient transfers are flawed with safety gaps
- Searched