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ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

You Be the Coder:

Can You Report EMS Direction?

Published on Fri Oct 28, 2005

Question: When our physicians give EMS online medical direction, can we bill for it?


Kentucky Subscriber


Answer: Yes, you can bill for the service--but don't get your hopes up about getting reimbursed.

Code 99288 (Physician direction of emergency medical systems emergency care, advanced life support) is appropriate to describe these services (assuming the physician has accurately documented them), but most payers don't recognize it. Medicare, for example, assigns 0 relative value units (RVUs) to the code, so you shouldn't bill it for this code.
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