Wiki Auditing IV's/hydration

[jackiemal]

I need to ask something that I'm confused on. My auditor and I have two different opinions on IV's.

If a patient comes in with flu symptoms and they get:
*
Zofran 4 mg via IVP in left antecubital from 13:09 ? 13:10
NS .9% 1000 via IV bolus in left antecubital from 13:22 ? 14:09
*
Would I code 96374 for the Zofran and 96360 for the saline?

The sticking point is two initials in one access point and how to code the saline. If anyone can point me to clear instructions it would help me out a lot. I just want to know if I'm thinking thru this the wrong way or is she. I got dinged on my audit this month for this.

 

[OCD_coder]

CPT guidelines state you cannot have two initials unless you have separate lines running into the patient or separate encounters, the NS would be the add-on code 96361.

 

[jackiemal]

Thank you. I thought you couldn't have two initials in one line. I was wrong about the hydration though. So if I have hydration also running and it runs over 31 minutes I use the 96361 add on code? The part where I was getting confused was on the time. I thought the time had to be over an hour to use the 96361.

I appreciate the help!

 

[jackiemal]

I have one more question. If the iv's were running on these times:

Zofran 4 mg via IVP in left antecubital from 13:09 - 13:10
NS .9% 1000 via IV bolus in left antecubital from 13:02 -13:34

Could I still code the hydration if it is running at the same time as the zofran?

 

[DoDCoder4You]

No you can not code for the Hydration the Zofran over rides this.