Wiki Inpatient visit following critical care

[Mohana Prasad]

Hi:

Can any any help me out on this.

A doctor has rendered acritical care services to a patient. Later on the same calendar day he again goes for a subsequent inpatient hospital visit. Shall we bill 99291 for the first visit followed by 99233 for the second visit?

Thanks,
N. Mohana Prasad.

 

[jdibble]

If the patient is still receiving critical care during the second visit, you would document and combine all time spent with the patient on the same date. If the time spent exceeds 74 minutes, then you would code with the add on code 99292 for each additional 30 minutes. You can bill both a critical care visit with a regular hospital visit on the same day, however I would think that usually pertains to a patient that has been seen earlier and then turns critical later in the day. If the patient is already critical, then I would think you would continue to bill critical for that day.

Thanks,