Wiki Emergency visits for OB patients

[Coral Denham]

Our OBGYNs are called to the OB department of local hospitals to see patients who are presenting for emergency care related to their pregnancy. If the patient is past their 16th week they bypass the Emergency room and go directly to the OB floor for care. Our physicians are wondering if they should be billing ER CPT codes (99281-99285) because the patients are actually going there for emergency care, or if they would need to bill outpatient visit CPT codes (99211-99215) because the patient is not actually in the Emergency room of the hospital.

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[lsleaford]

I bill for a group of OB hospitalists and we use the outpatient codes 99212-99215 successfully. Remember to use modifier 25 on the visit if you are also billing for a NST or sono, etc.