Wiki Cruise ship nightmare

[rogerseg]

Hello Fellow Coders:

I would appreciate some input on a medical bill from a cruise ship. My husband received critical care on a cruise. He was attended by a pysician. There was also another physician on board who made it clear he was only there to offer his consultation. Yet we received a bill for 99291 x 2 and 99292 x 28. It appears that the 30 minute intervals were doubled and I can only deduct that we were billed double for two physicians. I have consulted the CPT book and believe that only one attending physician can bill. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[heiditipherwell]

Interesting scenario. I am a CPC, and code for a Radiology group. However, I just finished reviewing the guidelines in CPT for the Critical Care codes in question, and it does in fact state in the very first line, "Critical care is the direct delivery by a physician(s) of medical care for a critically ill or critically injured patient." So, to my understanding by stating the possibility of more than one physician that they both could bill. However, how do you know that both physicians are billing and not just the one is trying to bill this twice? Time plays a huge factor in these codes. They may each only be billed once for a 24 hour period. Was your husband seen in critical care for more than one day? Hope that helps a little bit.....
Heidi