Question: Our physician met an established patient with severe gastrointestinal bleeding in the emergency department of the hospital. The physician could not pinpoint the origin of the bleeding right away, and the bleeding posed an imminent risk to the patient’s health. The doctor saw the patient, conducted tests, analyzed results, and consulted with other physicians. The entire visit took 62 minutes. What is the proper code that we should report? Louisiana Subscriber Answer: Although the concept of coding based on time does not apply to the emergency department codes (99281-99285), this scenario actually meets the criteria for critical care coding, which is based on time. Code the service using 99291 (Critical care, evaluation and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30-74 minutes). In this case, the presenting problem (not the final diagnosis or condition) determines the risk factor. The bleeding could potentially create an unstable, high-risk condition for the patient. According to CPT®, critical care is necessary when “a critical illness or injury acutely impairs one or more vital organ systems such that there is a high probability of imminent or life-threatening deterioration in the patient’s condition.” This situation indeed falls under this definition. Another factor in determining critical care is time. If your doctor does not spend at least 30 minutes attending exclusively to a patient’s needs, it is not critical care. Make sure your physician clearly and thoroughly documents all of the time they spend providing services. Include the site of service, medical necessity, and the services provided. Also, when deciding whether critical care was achieved, ask yourself the following questions: Of course, these questions won’t always lead you to be able to determine a confirmed critical care situation, but they may prompt you to start thinking about whether the service might constitute critical care. When in doubt, ask the gastroenterologist if the patient encounter met the critical care criteria.