Gastroenterology Coding Alert

You'll need 3 of 3 key components to choose a service level for new patients

You might be tempted to apply nursing home or home care coding for services rendered at a rest home, but rest home residents fall into a -gap- that includes neither nursing homes nor at-home services. Because rest homes are a distinct place of service, there's a better way to report these services.

For 2006, CPT has revised its guidelines for services the physician provides to domiciliary, rest home or custodial care patients. You should find the revisions to your liking because the new guidelines closely mimic those you regularly apply for office or other outpatient visits.

Watch Your Place of Service Before you submit rest home codes, you have to understand what differentiates the rest home, domiciliary or custodial care facility from other, similar places of service.

The rest home, domiciliary or custodial care facility (place-of-service code 33)--as defined by CPT and CMS---provides room, board and other personal assistance services, generally on a long-term basis.- Such facilities do not have a medical component, which distinguishes them from a nursing facility (place-of-service code 32), says Marvel J Hammer, RN, CPC, CCS-P, CHCO, president of MJH Consulting in Denver.

A rest home isn't a private residence: You should use the home service codes 99341-99350 only when the physician provides E/M services to a patient in his -own private residence and not any type of facility,- according to CMS rules. This would mean that even if the patient is truly -at home- in the domiciliary or rest home, you would not use 99341-99350, says Heidi Stout, CPC, CCS-P, coding and reimbursement manager at a multi-physician practice in New Brunswick, N.J. Out With the Old, in With the New You won't be using 99331-99333 to describe services for custodial care patients after Jan. 1, 2006. CPT has deleted these codes and added nine new codes to describe services that the physician provides in rest home settings:

- 99324-99328--Domiciliary or rest home visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient ... I-V

- 99334-99337--Domiciliary or rest home visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ... I-IV. CPT designed the new codes -to better capture the level of care provided in these settings consistent with increase of patients with complex disease who are eligible for this type of care - [and] remain in non-medical facilities,- according to the AMA's CPT Changes 2006: An Insider's View.

CPT makes it easy: You-ll choose from among 99324-99337 almost exactly as you would choose among office outpatient visits 99201-99215, Hammer says.

For instance, to report the lowest-level new patient visit in a rest home, your physician will need to document a problem-focused history, problem-focused examination and straightforward medical [...]