plarabee
Networker
99238 for discharge day services indicates 30 minutes or less.. 99239 indicates that it is more than 30 minutes. I am doing education on a provider where they have an outside auditor doing the actual audit. I just came across an audit sheet where the outside company audited the doctors services. Of the 37 charts that were documented, 15 of those were down coded to 99238 from 99239. The physician had documented greater than 30 minutes spent in discharge. The audit group has notes on all of those visits indicating that type of documentation was inappropriate and they needed to have actual clock time recorded in the visit. I have never heard of this and I have been auditing for more than 20 years. I have researched and cannot seem to find anything from CMS or CPT that indicates this. Did I miss something somewhere down the line? Because if the audit company is applying time documentation incorrectly I need to know and educate them before I educate the physician.
Thanks so much for any feedback!
Patricia Larabee
Thanks so much for any feedback!
Patricia Larabee