General Surgery Coding Alert

Question:After a patient with chest pain "coded" in the ER and was admitted to ICU, our surgeon saw the patient for a surgical consult. The patient was lethargic and a poor historian, so most of his information came from prior medical records. Our surgeon did not document time. Can we charge for critical care since the patient was in the ICU?North Carolina SubscriberAnswer:No -- you can't bill critical care simply because the place of service is the intensive care unit (ICU). The service you describe would be an inpatient consultation, such as 99251-99255 (Inpatient consultation for a new or established patient ...). For Medicare or other payers not accepting consultation codes, this would constitute an initial hospital care code such as 99221-99223 (Initial hospital care ...) Critical distinction: Critical care is not location-based; rather, it describes a specific kind of care. You must meet the following criteria to bill for [...]