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Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Reader Question:

Some Critical Care Time Can Be Non-Face to Face

Published on Mon Dec 17, 2012

Question: Our ED physician received a call from a rural hospital looking to transfer a patient with STEMI to our facility to be admitted to the cath lab. The physician spent 18 minutes in anticipation of the patient’s arrival, arranging activation of cath lab and consulting with other providers. The patient arrived, received critical care services, and was admitted to the cath lab after 19 minutes. The doctor would like to bill 37 minutes of critical care. Do critical care codes apply to this situation? On the one hand, the doctor spent significant time emergently coordinating care for this patient. On the other, the patient was only physically present for 19 minutes. What’s the best option?
Maine Subscriber Answer: CPT® is clear that the physician does not need to be at the bedside for every minute of critical care time reported as long as he is directly involved in [...]
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