Practice Management Alert

Question: My physician was called to the hospital to see a patient for a consultation. After my doctor spoke with the patient and reviewed his chart, the patient indicated that he did not want any intervention and refused further examination. Time was spent, but does not warrant even level one coding. Can anything be billed in this situation?Ohio SubscriberAnswer: Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like your physician did enough to warrant payment for the time he spent. You may want to use the unlisted E/M service code: 99499 (Unlisted evaluation and management service). Send whatever documentation there is from the visit to the payer. Then, the payer will decide if there was enough to pay any fee. However, you may not get any reimbursement at all.