Eli's Rehab Report

Answer: Yes. CPT 2000 states that hospital-discharge or observation-discharge services can be reported on the same date as a nursing-facility admission. Patients discharged from observation status on the same date of nursing-facility admission or readmission should be billed using CPT 99217 (observation care discharge). Patients who are both admitted and discharged from observation or inpatient status on the same date should be billed using codes 99234-99236.

What you cant bill for is a nursing-facility visit (99311-99313) on the same day as a hospital admission (99221-99223). Section 15505 of the Medicare Carriers Manual states, Payment for the hospital admission includes all work performed by the physician in all sites of service on that date.

Editors note: Brenda Messick, CPC, senior consultant at Gates, Moore & Co., a physician practice management firm in Atlanta, and Patricia Niccoli, HBMA, president of ElectroAge Billing, a medical billing firm in Phoenix, provided advice to answer You Be the Coder.