Outpatient Facility Coding Alert
You Be the Coder:
Know how to Deal with Discharge
Published on Tue Mar 31, 2015 
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Question: A patient was admitted to the hospital with severe dehydration and hyponatremia. The provider offered 30 minutes of service to the patient on the day of discharge from the hospital. How should I code?
Colorado Subscriber
Answer: You would use procedure code 99238 (Hospital discharge day management; 30 minutes or less). Report this code when the provider offers services to the patient on the day of discharge from the hospital. The provider spends 30 minutes or less directly or indirectly with the patient.
The diagnosis codes that you should use will be 276.1 (Hyposmolality and/or hyponatremia) and 276.51 for the dehydration.
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