tci ED Coding & Reimbursement Alert - 2003 Issue 9

You Be the Coder: Observation - Who Bills?

Question: Our doctor treated a patient in the emergency department (ED), and he admitted the patient to observation. He monitored the patient beginning in the later afternoon and then all night. The next day, a consulting physician admitted the patient to inpatient status. Should we code 99220 as well as 99217? The documentation definitely supports 99220, but I'm not sure whether to code them both. Iowa SubscriberAnswer: Technically, the patient's observation stay spans two calendar days, so you would use code 99220 (Initial observation care) for the first day. For the second day, you could potentially report 99217 (Observation...

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