Hospital Discharge Services

[MaryG215]

Are there any restrictions or rules about the provider who bills a 99238/99239? We are a specialty group and our providers are on-call in the hospital. Can they discharge a patient? CPT states "used to report the total duration of time spent by a physician..." I found a CMS article that states "the attending physician" but doesn't include a definition of "attending". Thank you.

 

[AmandaBriggs]

The attending physician is usually the physician that admitted the patient and is responsible for coordinating the patient's care throughout their hospitalization. The attending physician (or a physician from the same group) is the only physician that can charge for a discharge, other physicians involved in the patient's care can charge for hospital f/u visits. If a formal transfer of care has been made to another physician, then the physician that is accepting the transfer of care then becomes the attending physician and can bill the discharge.