Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

Question: Can you have more than one ‘first hour’ over an extended inpatient hospitalization? When our facility provides an infusion on two separate time points in the same encounter, can we report each as initial?

North Carolina Subscriber

Answer: For facility reporting on the same date, you report the first administration as the ‘initial’ and the “each additional hour” codes for the subsequent administrations of the same drug on the same date with a completion of the infusion between the scheduled administrations. When drug therapy is ordered, and given on subsequent calendar dates, an “initial” code can be used for the first dose on each date.