Wiki Primary physician/cath lab

[mconnolly]

My cardiologist sees patients in the cath lab as the primary physician. She does an HPI for every patient, if the patient only has a cath, they are discharged the same day. If they also have a stent placement, they stay overnight but usually discharged before 24 hours, how are these stays coded. Am I using the observation admit and discharge same day code for both? Thank you.

 

[jewlz0879]

Is your physician the admitting and discharging physician? If not, then I would not bill this code.

Also, I would make sure the cath's were not already scheduled, if so, the consult may not be billable.

HTH

 

[mconnolly]

Yes, she is the admitting and discharge doctor and is present during the cath.

 

[Amanedmaiston]

This sounds like a planned procedure. If the provider saw this patient in the office and scheduled the cath then I would only bill the procedure.

Always check to see what the hospital has as the status for the patient. You do not bill the observation codes if the patient is outpatient or inpatient. You also have to be the admitting to bill these codes. I would recommend reading the Medicare manual where it explains the billing of the inpatient and observation codes.