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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Anesthesia Time

Published on Sun Apr 01, 2001

Question: How do we calculate anesthesia time, based on multiple starts and stops? The anesthesiologist started an IV and completed the patients history and prep in the operating room holding area. The case was delayed 45 minutes because of another surgery. Do we record two start and stop times? Do we bill for the history/physical?

Wisconsin Subscriber

Answer: You can bill discontinuous time for starts and stops by adding minutes from each block of anesthesia time. Show all start and stop times on the patients chart and convert the total minutes to time units (you only bill time units for actual time with the patient, not the time away from the patient). An anesthesia history and physical are required for every patient, and are included in the anesthesia start-up units. You cannot charge separately for the history/physical time.
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