tci ED Coding & Reimbursement Alert - 2002 Issue 1

Dont Get Burned by Overlooking the 16000 Series

Legitimate opportunities for increased ethical revenue are being lost if emergency department coders don't recognize when they may report burn treatment services provided by physicians, according to Kenneth De Hart, MD, FACEP, president of Carolina Health Specialists in Myrtle Beach, S.C. "Based on my experience, there are many emergency departments in many parts of the country that fail to recognize when the 16000-16030 series may be invoked and, therefore, these codes are vastly underutilized," he says. Instead, coders often assign only emergency visit codes (99281-99285) to report burn treatment, resulting in lower payments. For example, the...

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