Wiki Fetal care visits

[MEDCODING]

Hi Everyone,
I am very interested to see what you think of the following scenerio. Please see below......

Here is the background info: The fetal care center is part of a large pediatric hospital and ALL physicians are employed by the hospital.

Scenerio: First the patient has several diagnostic tests performed (fetal MRI, fetal echo, ultrasound)

The mom/family are then located in a comfortable room where several services interview/interact with them on an individual basis (pastoral care, social services, genetic counselor, etc)

The fetal/maternal physician and the surgical physician, together, review the test results and prior records for the patient and develop a plan of care (for some cases, a specialist may also be involved such as urology, neurosurgery, etc)

Next, the physicians involved, patient/family, and often some of the other non-physician providers who have met with the family meet for a "care conference" to discuss with the patient/family what the findings are, the recommended plan of care as well as any alternative care plans, answer questions of the patient, etc..

HERE IS THE QUESTION:
Can both physicians who are present for the face to face "care conference' with the patient bill for the total time of the meeting? All these services are billed with E/M codes by TOTAL TIME OF SERVICE, as the majority of the face to face meeting is always counseling and coordination of care services. (EX:meeting with patient is 60 minutes, Maternal MD bills 99244 and surgical physician bills 99244)

Any info is appreciated as well as documentation sources.

Thanks,
K. Day

 

[FTessaBartels]

CPT Guidelines

CPT 2009 Professional Edition, page 27 MEDICAL TEAM CONFERENCES.

The guidelines specify that: Physicians may report their time spent in a team conference with the patient and/or family present using evaluation and management codes (and time as the key controlling factor for code selection when counseling and/or coordination of care dominates the service.)

I thank that says it pretty clearly.

F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CEMC