Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: I’m new to coding and need help with reporting anesthesia time. If payers want total units in box 24G on the CMS 1500, how do you convert the total minutes to units?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: How to calculate and report anesthesia time units properly depends on the payer. Check with your Florida payers and confirm their definition of a unit of time — in other words, what minute interval equals one unit. Medicare and Medicaid require 15-minute time units, and several payers follow suit, also using 15-minute increments. Some payers will accept 10-minute increments, while others want 8, 12, or some other time increment. For example, Florida Workers’ Compensation allows physician services in 10-minute increments.

To calculate time units, simply divide the total number of minutes by the associated unit. In a case that lasts 84 minutes and for payers with 15-minute increments, divide 84 by 15 for a total of 5.6 units. For a payer with 10-minute increments, divide 84 by 10 for a total of 8.4 units.