Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: A podiatrist saw an inpatient, and performed discharge services. However, the hospital discharged the patient only the next day. It's not clear to me if a code from the hospital subsequent care series (99231-99233) should be reported for the actual day of discharge or the day when the physician rendered the discharge services. Which is which?Kentucky SubscriberAnswer: For the date when the attending physician rendered the discharge services, you should use the hospital discharge codes 99238 (Hospital discharge day management; 30 minutes or less) and 99239 (Hospital discharge day management; more than 30 minutes). Make sure, however, that the date of discharge is different from the date of admission. These service codes also include final examination of the patient, discussion of the hospital stay, instructions for continuing care to all relevant caregivers, as well as preparation of discharge records, prescriptions, and referral forms.Don't forget: You should base your reporting 99238 [...]