tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2010 Issue 12

Reader questions: Pick Inpatient E/M for Admission Date

Question: If our surgeon sees a patient, and later that same day, another physician admits the patient to the hospital, should our surgeon report an inpatient or outpatient E/M code? Answer: If you know at the time you bill for your surgeon's service that the patient was admitted to inpatient status on the same date, you should use the inpatient codes for one simple reason -- they pay better. Coding rules state, however, that you can choose to code an inpatient or outpatient E/M service on the admission date, so either choice would be correct. Watch for payer restrictions:...

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