tci ED Coding & Reimbursement Alert - 2005 Issue 7

Reader Questions: Check Dates for 'Dead' Patient

Question: We recently received a denial from Medicare for an emergency department visit because the report stated, "date of death precedes this visit." How should we handle this? Washington SubscriberAnswer: How you should handle it depends on the specifics of the situation. You have three possibilities here: The date of death on record preceded the recorded emergency department visit date, the date of death was equal to the patient's date of service, or the patient is, in fact, alive, and Medicare is basing its denial on an error in the Social Security database.In the first situation -...

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