Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: Is there a code that I can use for the administration of Tylenol or Motrin? The only code that I have found for oral medication administration is H0033. Is it appropriate to use the code in this context?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

Answer: No, you instead should include the administration of the oral drug in the related E/M service (such as 99201-99215, Office or Other Outpatient Visit).

H0033 (Oral medication administration, direct observation) is in the alcohol and drug abuse treatment services. Some private health insurers are using the code for reporting buprenorphine treatment services, such as giving the patient an opioid medication to treat opioid addiction in the privacy of a physician's office.

-- Information for and answers to You Be the Coder and Reader Questions provided/reviewed by Donelle Holle, RN, president of Pedscoding.com in Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Peter A. Hollmann, MD, medical director for Rhode Island Blue Cross Blue Shield; Charles Scott, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician at Medford Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in New Jersey; and Richard Tuck, MD, FAAP, pediatrician at PrimeCare of Southeastern Ohio in Zanesville.