General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: My surgeon admitted a patient who presented to the emergency room late at night. Even though the patient was admitted before midnight, my physician didn't see her until a few hours later, which means the date of service for the hospital admission does not match the surgeon's first face-to-face encounter with the patient. Should I report 99222 with the first date of service? Wisconsin Subscriber Answer: No, you should report the appropriate initial hospital care code (99221-99223, Initial hospital care, per day, for the evaluation and management of a patient ...) with the date of service (DOS) when your surgeon saw the patient -- in this case, the second day. Why: The DOS for the physician's E/M is the date when the physician provided the face-to-face inpatient encounter with the patient in the hospital. CPT Assistant (July 2007) supports this, stating "From the reporting physician perspective, the hospital admission services [...]