Wiki Academic Hospital - ER Coding

[deyoung]

If a psychiatrist or multiple psychiatrists (same group, billing under 1 tax ID) sees 1 patient on the same date of service at the ER what code(s) would you bill?

Our patients come into the ER and sometimes stay for awhile. Within an 18-hour period they may be seen between 2 and 3 times (initial visit plus follow-ups).

Thanks!

 

[1073358]

It depends on what services they are providing? Are they doing EM services, or are they actually doing initial assesments and sorts of therapy?

 

[deyoung]

They do initial evals and E/M services. I told the doctor asking this question that if a patient is seen more than 1 time in a day all services would be rolled into 1 code. The concern is if they are doing a 90801 they won't be able to bill anything in addition to that for the follow-up visits.

Thanks!

 

[kevbshields]

It would not really matter if additional services are furnished on this same date by the same provider group. Typically the services will ultimately be bundled into one E/M and/or CPT per DOS. While there are exceptions to that coding scenario, I am not certain you will find the documentation could support multiple codes/services by the same provider set, same day. Perhaps I am letting something slip out of mind right now, but this would be a great place to discuss any I've overlooked.

 

[1073358]

Kev is correct far as I know. Not sure what I was thinking when I posted... all the services that day, would end up bundled by the psychiatrists

 

[deyoung]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I agree, bundled.