Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Bypass costly errors with these pointers. Experience may not pre-empt coding lapses when reporting discharge services (99238-99239). Here are five mistakes which you must avoid at all costs. 1. Multiple physicians. Several physicians might be managing the care of a patient, and all might try to bill for the discharge -- but only the attending physician should bill for the discharge, CMS indicates. The Medicare Claims Processing Manual notes, "Only the attending physician of record reports the discharge day management service. Physicians or qualified nonphysician practitioners, other than the attending physician, who have been managing concurrent health care problems not primarily managed by the attending physician, and who are not acting on behalf of the attending physician, shall use Subsequent Hospital Care (CPT® code range 99231- 99233) for a final visit." 2. Patients ineligible for inpatient codes. Sometimes a patient may not be eligible for a discharge code. This can happen [...]