billing for "intended chemotherapy infusion time"

[dsanchez1208]

Hello fellow coders. I need some clarification on billing for intended chemotherapy infusion time. I am being told that we can bill for infusion time when we intend/schedule pt for chemo, but if pt had a reaction or other circumstances prevented us from continuing/start chemo we can still bill as we reserved the chair for this pt. can someone provide some back links for this?

I personally think we should not bill.

 

[lch]

I would have to agree with you. You can't bill for services that never took place, regardless of the intent.

 

[daisy3663]

If the patient was scheduled to come in and actually sat in the chair and the nurse administered the drug, you have to bill for the administration but you must tie a reaction code (995.29) to the administration code and drug code that the patient had a reaction to so it shows why the infusion wasn't given in it's full original scheduled time. If the patient had a reaction before they came into the infusion room then I agree that you cannot bill for a service that has not been administered.

 

[DeniceD]

You cannot bill for services you have not rendered. There is no such thing as "intended billing". Daisy is correct in her billing scenarios. Don't forget to use the neccessary reaction codes and applicable modifiers when necessary.