Same Day Admit/Discharge - 2 Hospitalists

[CrysLednum]

Hello -

I spoke with a group of multiple Hospitalists from the same group - differing shifts. We were having a discussion where Hospitalist A admits patient at 2 am. At 10:30 AM Hospitalist B discharges patient. (Hospitalist A's shift ended at 7 AM). I was asked how to code and I believe this would be a Same Day Admit/Discharge for Hospitalist A, but B is stating that he is doing the discharge and that A billed for an Initial Inpatient Admission prior to shift ending.

I am not finding support on coding it that way - appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thanks,

[mhstrauss]

You are correct in thinking that they should use the Same Day Admit/Discharge codes. Even though they are different physicians, they are part of the same group/same specialty, so are treated as the same physician when it comes to billing. As far as which one actually gets to bill teh charge, your office can come up with a protocol, such as maybe rotating who bills the code when this situation comes up, or if it doesn't happen very often, then let the phyisican that discharged the patient bill the charge.

Hope this helps!

[Naveen Rachagolla]

I guess here that since patient has crosed the minimum stay of 8 hours in hopsital we can used the code series from 99234 to 99236.

Originally Posted by mhstrauss

You are correct in thinking that they should use the Same Day Admit/Discharge codes. Even though they are different physicians, they are part of the same group/same specialty, so are treated as the same physician when it comes to billing. As far as which one actually gets to bill teh charge, your office can come up with a protocol, such as maybe rotating who bills the code when this situation comes up, or if it doesn't happen very often, then let the phyisican that discharged the patient bill the charge.

Hope this helps!