Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: A patient with date of birth (DOB) 8/24/09 is now 47 days old. The baby was kept in the hospital for 42 days due to the mom being on Methodone; the baby was in withdrawal. How can we bill for a 42-day daily inhouse check? Should we bill per day? Or put in (40) X's units? South Carolina Subscriber Answer: You should code each day's care using two sets of codes: one for the newborn care (through the 28th day) and one for the infant care (29th day through the 41st day). If the newborn, especially in the early period, required intensive observation and frequent interventions, you Page 94 should code Initial and Continuing Intensive Care Services (99477-99480) on days 1-28. On day 1, you would use 99477 (Initial hospital care, for the evaluation and management of the neonate, 28 days of age or less, who requires intensive observation, [...]