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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Report Exact Anesthesia Minutes, Not Rounded Time Units

Published on Wed Aug 08, 2012

Question: Our anesthesia practice is out of network with many insurance companies. We don't typically follow the industry standard for rounding up time for our units after 7 minutes. I'm not convinced this is the best billing strategy, regardless of whether our group is in an insurance company's network. What's the latest recommendation for rounding time versus billing exact minutes? Michigan SubscriberAnswer: Rounding up anesthesia time to the next unit may be a thing of the past, thanks to the implementation of the ANSI 5010 claim form. This form helps lay the groundwork for ICD-10 and requires that you bill anesthesia time per minute instead of by units. All electronic HIPAA-standard transactions must be transmitted in a format that complies with the ANSI Version 5010. Physician groups should have begun testing and migrating to the 5010 during the 2011 calendar year.
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