Wiki Initial inpatient visits

meguzma86

Guest
Messages
7
Best answers
0
Can we bill an initial visit code (99221-99223 MCR) if our doctor didn't see pt on day of admittance but was the first doctor of our specialty to see the pt while in the hospital?
 
according to the cpt book for initial inpatient encounters by physicians OTHER than the admitting physician, use codes 99251-99255 or subsequent hospital care codes 99231-99233 as appropriate.
 
MCR won't accept consult codes

Kjohnson's answer may be correct in general, but starting this year, Medicare does not accept consult codes. So yes use the initial visit codes for the first day that your provider sees them. I am saying this having seen many providers do this when I was training them to use billing software, and it worked for them. I trained them in stages for about 12 weeks, so I would have had feedback on denials. In the software I was using, you could also shut off the edit that warns you that the initial visit is not on the admission date.
 
Top