# assisted living vs rest home



## Colliemom (Apr 29, 2014)

Good morning,

Just a quick, simple question.  When you are billing for patients seen in a rest home, what place of service code are you using?  Assisted Living and rest home services are grouped together in the CPT, both locations using codes 99324 - 99337.  The place of service code for assisted living services is 13, so would rest home services use the same POS code?  Or does that location have it's own POS?

Can anyone explain in simple terms the difference in these two places?  (assisted living and rest home)  Does one offer more care than the other?  What type of care?

sorry, that ended up being more than one questions, thanks


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## bethdeak (Apr 29, 2014)

I'm not sure what you mean by rest home-

An assisted living facility by definition means there is on site service 24 hours a day and that they can arrange for services (medical and other) based on the persons needs. They live in their own 'units' or apartments.


There is a custodial care facility, and that allows for long term assistance without a medical component, but has room and board and other personal assistance services but no medical care/component. The POS code for that is 33.

Hope that helps.


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## Colliemom (Apr 29, 2014)

Sorry, we had a new practice join our group and they see patients in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, private residences and rest homes.  As this is all new to me, I may not be explaining this very well.  One of the new APRNs has asked that we add a POS code for assisted living (13) and a *separate one *for rest homes, so she can correctly indicate where the services were provided.  

If you look at the CPT codes 99324 - 99337, you will see the description is "Domiciliary, Rest Home (eg, Boarding Home), or Custodial Care Services."  And if you look at the codes 99339 - 99340, you will see the description is "Domiciliary, Rest Home (eg, Assisted Living Facility), or Home Care Plan Oversite Services."

So I am trying to understand what the main difference is between "rest home" and "assisted living facility."  Is it that rest homes do medication administration, which would suggest to me that POS 14 would be the correct POS?  Or are "rest homes" and "assisted living facilities" the same thing, which would mean they both use POS 13?  Or would POS 33, be the best choice?


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## ReneeGillam CPMA CMOM CMC (Jun 4, 2014)

Does the Assisted Living Facility also need to have an NPI #?


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