Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: We have a busy inpatient trauma service. Some authorities recommend using a trauma-service activation charge to cover expenses of calling in a team. Are there codes for this? Does anyone pay such charges?

Ohio Subscriber

Answer: No specific procedural (CPT) codes exist for trauma-team activation. You should use the usual emergency department E/M codes (99281-99285, Emergency department visit for the evaluation and management of a patient ...) that describe your service.

Two code sets also describe trauma-related services. For instance, you could bill the appropriate surgery code for operating on a trauma patient. And, your facility should use ambulatory procedural codes to charge the facility fee for trauma-team activation.