ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

The break of a bone does not always mean a fracture code.A patient presents to the ED with a broken bone. The physician confirms the fracture, treats the patient and sends him home. This is automatically a fracture care claim ... right?Wrong: Eliminate misconceptions about your ED physician's fracture care treatment with the following fact or fiction challenge.Fact or Fiction? Fractured Bone = Fracture CareFiction. Patients with broken bones don't always receive reportable fracture treatment in the ED, confirms Yvonne P. Bouvier, CPC, CEDC, senior coding analyst at Bill Dunbar and Associates, LLC in Indianapolis. The ED physician might make the patient more comfortable and send her to the orthopedist for definitive fracture treatment, for instance."For the ED physician to perform fracture care, she should provide the same care as an orthopedist would," explains Bouvier. If the physician does not provide care on par with the orthopedist, use the appropriate [...]