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Pediatric Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Does 99239 Require All or Some Items?

Published on Fri Aug 28, 2009

Question: Our state Medicaid denied 99239 on the last day of the hospitalization because the patient died that day. The discharge was near noon, if time makes any difference. The representative said that we could only charge for time or a 99232 or 99233. Is there a distinction between a live or deceased discharge? South Dakota Subscriber Answer: Although CPT does not make one, carriers may. While the hospital discharge services (99238, 99239) instructions do not require the physician to perform all listed services, some carriers have applied this interpretation. You can report 99238 (Hospital discharge management; 30 minutes or less) or 99239 (... more than 30 minutes) when the physician provides any of the services listed in the discharge day management notes, according to the AMA. "The appropriate hospital discharge code, 99238-99239, can be reported in the case of a patient death when the physician performs any of the [...]
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