ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Analyze the coding and reimbursement environment before assigning codes for smoking or substance abuse counseling.While a busy emergency department is not the ideal venue for lengthy preventive care counseling sessions, but it can present a good opportunity to have a discussion about contributing factors that may have brought a patient to the ED for treatment. Following the advice below to ensure any behavior modification service your ED physician provides gets properly reported.For example: Consider a patient who presents with injuries caused by driving while intoxicated or a home accident involving themselves or others that was directly related to altered status from substance abuse. Similarly, a smoker with an acute respiratory emergency may be more open to an intervention and behavior modification counseling than they would be in normal situations.Check the ManualThe E/M section of the CPT® book contains a code set for behavior change interventions for individuals to access their [...]