General Surgery Coding Alert

No one wants to go to the trouble of filing a critical care claim only to have it rejected. Consider these scenarios and ask yourself: Should I report a critical care code in this situation? Compare your responses to those following the scenarios.
 
Scenario 1: The surgeon documents 53 minutes tending to a critically ill patient, during which she performs CPR. In her notes, the physician points out that CPR took 17 minutes, with the rest of the time devoted to critical care services.
 
Scenario 2: The surgeon documents 45 minutes of critical care time, during which she performed CPR and ventilatory management. The physician provides no other statements or documentation.
 
Scenario 3: The surgeon's documentation notes 43 minutes spent with a critically injured patient, during which she inserted a chest tube and central line. In her notes, the physician reports that the chest tube and central line procedure took 18 minutes, and she devoted the rest of the time to critical care services.

Answer 1: Yes, you can report a critical care code. The physician made it very easy for her coding office, taking care to note that the separately billable services (CPR) accounted for only 17 minutes of the visit, leaving 36 spent on critical care.
 
Answer 2: Based on the documentation provided, you should not bill for critical care services along with CPR and ventilatory management. The surgeon provides no documentation to prove that at least 30 minutes were spent administering critical care. In this case, query the physician to clarify the time spent performing the separate procedure (in this case, CPR: remember, ventilatory management is included in critical care) and document this time accordingly. Develop a consensus with the physician group for cases like this, which could then become part of your compliance plan.
 
Answer 3: No, you cannot report a critical care code. The surgeon's documentation indicates she spent only 25 minutes providing critical care services represented by the critical care codes.