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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Two Options for Adding Interrupted Time

Published on Sun Jul 11, 2010

Question: A surgeon dealt with an emergent case soon after starting a procedure with our anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist had already induced the patient, so he transferred her to the recovery room until the surgeon was ready to resume the procedure. How should we bill for this case? Oklahoma SubscriberAnswer: You can bill for both trips to the OR as long as the anesthesiologist was in attendance during those times. Simply add the times for both blocks together for the anesthesia total, or subtract the interruption time from the beginning and final end times.For example, say the anesthesia time began at 0650 until 0810, then the patient returned to the OR at 0843 and anesthesia time ended at 0916. Your first block of time equals 80 minutes, the interruption equals 33 minutes, and the second block of OR time equals 33 minutes. You can add the two OR times together (80 [...]
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