# Injection/Infusion Challenges in Observation



## jboes41527 (Jul 9, 2009)

I'm looking for some ideas of how hospitals are handling the charging for Injections and Infusions that are given to the patient in Observation Status?  Our nurses often do not know when a patient is Inpatient or Observation, and they do not charge for such injections/Infusions.  However, if the documentation is provided we want to capture those charges for our Observation patients, but who will capture??  Unit clerks, Coding staff??  I don't think it is realistic to ask nurses to understand the already complex guidlines for Injection/Infusion coding?  I would appreciate any thoughts or advice.
Thanks!!


----------



## sharon turk (Jul 9, 2009)

At our hospital I code the infusions/injections for OBS patients.  I am a coder in the HIM Dept.  The trick to coding the infusions/injections is to get the nurses administering the infusions/injections to record start and stop times.  Other than that, being the coder I have learned the coding guidelines, so it is easy for me to code them.  The hospital began coding the infusions/injections because they had an audit before I started working there and the auditors told them they were losing thousands of dollars not coding them.  I hope this helps!


----------



## Misdavis (Aug 17, 2018)

sharon turk said:


> At our hospital I code the infusions/injections for OBS patients.  I am a coder in the HIM Dept.  The trick to coding the infusions/injections is to get the nurses administering the infusions/injections to record start and stop times.  Other than that, being the coder I have learned the coding guidelines, so it is easy for me to code them.  The hospital began coding the infusions/injections because they had an audit before I started working there and the auditors told them they were losing thousands of dollars not coding them.  I hope this helps!



I realize how old this post is, just curious if you are still coding injections and infusions while in obs status? Any advice to offer? Do you know if your payor contracts allows for the billing or if it's rolled up into the OBS visit? This has been a back and forth topic I've followed for about 4 years now. It has circled back around again due to an external company stating we are losing a large volume of funds. I am not convinced since only a small group of payors seem to pay and I am not convinced that they pay once a patient becomes obs status?


----------

