Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Maryland Subscriber

 

 Answer: You will code for an initial hospital consultation on May 21. After this point, it appears that you took over care, so the rest of the visits will be coded as inpatient subsequent care up until 24 hours prior to delivery (that is, on the 22nd and 23rd). At that point, you bill the code for cesarean delivery only, which includes inpatient hospital follow-up care. The code series for the consultation is 99251-99255; for subsequent hospital care it is 99231-99233; and the code for the delivery is 59514 (cesarean delivery only), since I am assuming that you did not let her go through a trial and that she had not had a previous cesarean. Select your E/M codes based on your documentation. If you think that on May 22 you were invited back again for another consultation service (and were not simply following up at your own initiative) you can bill that as an inpatient follow-up consultation using 99261-99263. CPT is very clear about the use of these follow-up consult codes: "If the physician consultant has initiated treatment at the initial consultation, and participates thereafter in the patient's management, the codes for subsequent hospital care should be used."