Wiki Q re billing anesthesia time when there is a break in attendance

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Hello! I am new to anesthesia coding. I didn't see this topic addressed previously. Any help be greatly appreciated.

Our anesthesiologist indicates a break in supervision time (15 minutes break, for example), how would you enter that? Our PM, Advanced MD, auto-calculates the units when we enter the time period of anesthesia. I tried to enter the code onto two different lines with a 59 modifier appended to the second time period but it didn't pass the edits software.

Anybody have a suggestion?

Thank you!!
 
Hello! I am new to anesthesia coding. I didn't see this topic addressed previously. Any help be greatly appreciated.

Our anesthesiologist indicates a break in supervision time (15 minutes break, for example), how would you enter that? Our PM, Advanced MD, auto-calculates the units when we enter the time period of anesthesia. I tried to enter the code onto two different lines with a 59 modifier appended to the second time period but it didn't pass the edits software.

Anybody have a suggestion?

Thank you!!
If your anesthesiologist took a break, did someone cover the supervision for that time?

You would not bill this separately with a 59. All you would do is list the start/stop times of each anesthesia provider for the procedure.
 
If your anesthesiologist took a break, did someone cover the supervision for that time?

You would not bill this separately with a 59. All you would do is list the start/stop times of each anesthesia provider for the procedure.
I am inquiring with doctor about your first question. I will remove the 59 modifier. Thank you for your response. Very much appreciate you!
 
Hello, I'm still stuck on this issue of billing anesthesia when there is a break in supervision. My anesthesiologist is doing lens surgery. She begins the anesthesia for Patient 1 (which takes about 5 minutes), then heads over to work on Patient 2 while Patient 1 is in the OR. Then she comes back to Patient 1 and finishes the anesthesia supervision for about another 10 minutes. When I enter the time split out like this in our AdvancedMD system (which calculates the units automatically for the CPT and time), the billable amount is about double what it would be if the anesthesia time was a continuous 15 minutes. The claim doesn't make it out of the clearinghouse due to unspecified rejection error.

Does anyone have a suggestion on this? Thank you again.
 
Hello, I'm still stuck on this issue of billing anesthesia when there is a break in supervision. My anesthesiologist is doing lens surgery. She begins the anesthesia for Patient 1 (which takes about 5 minutes), then heads over to work on Patient 2 while Patient 1 is in the OR. Then she comes back to Patient 1 and finishes the anesthesia supervision for about another 10 minutes. When I enter the time split out like this in our AdvancedMD system (which calculates the units automatically for the CPT and time), the billable amount is about double what it would be if the anesthesia time was a continuous 15 minutes. The claim doesn't make it out of the clearinghouse due to unspecified rejection error.

Does anyone have a suggestion on this? Thank you again.
Your anesthesiologist is working 2 cases at the same time? That's why you're having trouble coding this type of scenario. If she's the only anesthesia provider on a case, she may only be with one patient at a time. That's a concurrency issue and an ethical issue. Anesthesiologists my supervise more than one CRNA but not more than one patient. There is supposed to be an anesthesia provider with a patient who has received anesthesia the entire time when they're under General or MAC.
 
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