Urology Coding Alert

Question:After a patient with chest pain "coded" in the ER and was admitted to the ICU, our urologist saw the patient for a urological consult. The patient was lethargic and a poor historian, so most of his information came from prior medical records. Our doctor did not document time. Can we charge for critical care since the patient was in the ICU?North Carolina SubscriberAnswer:No -- you can't bill critical care (99291-99292, Critical care, evaluation and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient ...) simply because the place of service is the intensive care unit (ICU). The service you describe would be an inpatient consultation, such as 99253 (Inpatient consultation for a new or established patient ...). For Medicare or other payers not accepting consultation codes, this would constitute an initial hospital care code such as 99221 (Initial hospital care, per day, for the evaluation and management of a [...]