Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: A pediatrician admitted a critical newborn and put the baby on continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) initially but had to use Neopuff bagging during the computed tomography (CT) for the baby because the staff had to take the CPAP off during the scan. The baby was transferred out the same date, so I am billing hourly critical care for the physician, not the daily critical care (CC). Is the Neopuff a separately billable charge? Michigan Subscriber Answer: Do not separately report the Neopuff. "The Neopuff represents ventilatory management like CPAP or SIMV (synchronized intermittent mandatory ventilation) and is documented in the hourly critical care codes," says Gilbert I. Martin, MD, FAAP, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) director at Citrus Valley Medical Center in West Covina, Calif. The hourly critical care codes (99291, Critical care, evaluation and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30-74 minutes; and [...]