Question Multiple days of Recovery Room 0710

[Priscilla Keogh]

I am confident that I know the answer to my question, I have been coding for over 20 years, but my leadership would like a second opinion. This is a facility who is not on OPPS payment methodology and is reimbursed separately for recovery room time. They are submitting multiple days of recovery room after the patient has had surgery.
A patient came in for a planned knee replacement. The surgery went well with no complications and the patient went to the recovery room at 4:00 pm. The facility submitted 8 hours of recovery room time that day and 24 hours of recovery room (rev code 0710) for each of the next 2 days.
Is this correct coding/billing?
What should they have billed?
Can they bill 48 hours of observation if the patient is stable and there are no complications from the surgery?
As silly as this scenario may sound, I appreciate any replies that I can share with my leadership

 

[kuanysh]

This is incorrect billing. Recovery room (0710) is for immediate post-anesthesia care, not extended post-surgical monitoring.You're right to question this. Your leadership should correct the billing immediately and audit recent cases for similar errors. This is a clear-cut coding error. Revenue code 0710 is defined by CMS and commercial payers as PACU services, not extended post-op care. The UB-04 manual and NUBC guidelines are explicit on this.