# Medicare and the re-admittance into a hospital



## DebbiePottsEngland (Dec 7, 2010)

I have a situation in which my doctor was asked to consult during one admisssion (2day admit) the consult was on the date of discharge and then after discharge the next day the patient is readmitted and my doctor is asked to consult again.  Technically this is a different admission even though the symptoms are the same.  Due to the patient having Medicare and the hospital combining the admission (if they do and I thought if a patient was readmitted within a certain amount of time they did combine the admissions) can I bill for the second consult with the current admission and discharge dates or bill as a subsequent visit?
thanks in advance.
Debbie.


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## Chanke (Dec 7, 2010)

I beleive that you can have the consult again if it is on a seperate day.  MCR usually allows onbe consult per specialty per day.


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## FTessaBartels (Dec 14, 2010)

*NO consults for Medicare*

Medicare does not recognize ANY of the consultation codes. So you will be coding with either initial or subsequent visit codes, depending on the circumstances.

F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CEMC


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## DebbiePottsEngland (Dec 15, 2010)

I understand that medicare does not pay consults.  but when I have to initials because the admits dates are different, will the hospital combine the stays into one then leaving me with two initials?


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