Watch these 2 areas for critical care coding success
Published on Mon Nov 23, 2009
Understanding 'critically ill' and 'high complexity' start you on the right foot. Your neurosurgeon provides a medical service to a very sick patient in the hospital that you think might be classified as "critical care." Be sure the service meets all the criteria to avoid miscoding your physician's services. The descriptors for 99291 (Critical care, evaluation and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30-74 minutes) and 99292 (... each additional 30 minutes [List separately in addition to code for primary service]) include several hurdles you must cross before coding critical care. Read on to learn how to better understand what "critically ill or injured" and "high complexity" mean; next month we'll dive into other details to keep your coding on the right track. 'Critically Ill or Injured' Means Life-Threatening CPT guidelines state that the patient must be critically ill or injured. This means the illness or [...]
