Check 4 details before turning to critical care codes
Published on Sat Nov 21, 2009
Treatment time, additional services help determine when 99291, 99292 apply. When your neurosurgeon cares for a very sick patient in the hospital, his medical services -- and the chart documentation -- must meet certain criteria before you can classify them as "critical care." Last month our experts discussed the importance of understanding what "critically ill or injured" and "high complexity" mean; now check out their advice regarding treatment times and reporting other services with 99291 (Critical care, evaluation and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30-74 minutes) and +99292 (... each additional 30 minutes [List separately in addition to code for primary service]). Treatment Time Should Pass 30 Minutes The treatment time must exceed 30 minutes -- and that timeframe is not flexible, experts say. If your physician spends less than 30 minutes of critical care time on a particular day, you must report an appropriate E/M code instead [...]
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