Anesthesia Coding Alert

Answer: It’s important to recognize that anesthesia billing involves time units and base units, which are different. The time unit component of an anesthesia claim indicates how much time the anesthesia provider spent with the patient before, during, and after the surgical case. Base units indicate the case’s level of complexity. The more complex the procedure is, the higher the base unit. Note, you should never report base units on the claim form.

To convert total minutes to total units of time, divide the time by increments of time, which in most cases is 15 minutes. In other words, one unit of time is recorded for each 15-minute increment of anesthesia time. You can use this as a rule of thumb, however, do not assume that all payers use 15-minute increments.

For example, a 127-minute procedure incurs 8.47 units of time — you’d divide 127 by 15, which equals 8.47 time units.

Best practice: Check each policy to see whether they require time units or total minutes and how they define an increment of anesthesia time.