Anesthesia Coding Alert
Follow This Advice on Rounding Anesthesia Time Up
Question: When billing insurances other than Medicare, which requires precise time reporting, how is the time reported, and do you round the actual time up or down? Vermont Subscriber Answer: If your contract or policy doesn’t specify, it is acceptable to set up the anesthesia software system to round up. For example, if your system is set up to bill in 15-minute increments, both 16 minutes and 29 minutes would be two units of time. As you’ve mentioned, Medicare doesn’t want you to round time. Instead, it expects you to report anesthesia time in exact minutes. However, the policies for other insurers vary, and most anesthesia software systems allow variances for different payers. Tip: It is important to know whether the insurance company requires units or minutes. Some carriers publish their policies for reporting and rounding anesthesia time. When in doubt, contact the individual payer to verify what they require.
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Follow This Advice on Rounding Anesthesia Time Up
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