# Can 99291 and 99238 bill togeather ?



## Naveen Rachagolla (Sep 17, 2012)

If the Dr. in an inpatient setting performs critical care in the morning, then patient is discharged to another hospital later that day, can that Dr. bill for both? The critical care and discharge on the same day? 

The CPT Book Page # 23 says Critical care and other E/M services may be provided to the same patient on the sade date by the same physician

And again in the same page it says Any services performed that are not included in this listing should be reported separately.

Can some one give me clear understanding on billing the above codes.

Thanks


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## sullivak (Sep 18, 2012)

Yes, you should code the Critical care time separately from the E/M service UNLESS the critical care time was less than 30 minutes.  If the critical care services were less than 30 minutes, this should be bundled into the appropriate E/M code.
So in this case, if the Dr. performed a significant amount of critical care in the am, I would code that along with the 99238-39 to reflect the discharge time.  I'm rusty on modifiers so someone else will have to answer the question of whether you need a modifier.
Hope that helped some!


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## Naveen Rachagolla (Sep 20, 2012)

Thanks Kim.



sullivak said:


> Yes, you should code the Critical care time separately from the E/M service UNLESS the critical care time was less than 30 minutes.  If the critical care services were less than 30 minutes, this should be bundled into the appropriate E/M code.
> So in this case, if the Dr. performed a significant amount of critical care in the am, I would code that along with the 99238-39 to reflect the discharge time.  I'm rusty on modifiers so someone else will have to answer the question of whether you need a modifier.
> Hope that helped some!


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