Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Virtually everything your ob-gyn does can contribute to the documentation. If you report 99231 for all your subsequent hospital care services, you may be costing your practice more than money -- you could be raising a red flag to payers. According to CMS data, ob-gyns report 99231 more often than any other subsequent hospital care code. What that means: This indicates that either most subsequent hospital visits are low-level services or ob-gyns routinely undercode for inpatient care. Since not all ob visits are low-level, you should be reporting higher-level subsequent hospital care too -- provided your documentation warrants it. Problem: Because carriers usually bundle hospital care into postsurgical visits, many ob-gyns aren't familiar with the documentation guidelines associated with subsequent hospital care for nonsurgical situations, such as preterm labor or pregnancy-induced hypertension. If you pick up the patient's care after another physician -- such as a patient's primary care physician -- admits the patient [...]