Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question:  I’m new to anesthesia billing and have a question about calculating time. I know that anesthesia is billed in 15 minute increments. Someone told me that we should bill every 10 minutes once the procedure goes beyond four hours. They were not referring to labor epidurals, and I haven’t found any guidelines supporting what they said. Are we supposed to change our calculations that way? 

Hawaii Subscriber 

Answer:  The correct way to calculate time units depends on the payer. Medicare and Medicaid require 15-minute time units. Some commercial insurers will accept 10-minute increments, but others want 15. We’ve never heard of a payer switching to a different time unit basis after a certain point, but that’s not to say it couldn’t ever happen. If it makes you more comfortable, speak with your individual payer representatives to confirm their guidelines.