Primary Care Coding Alert

Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer. Question: One of my physicians was asked to see a patient in a nursing home. We reported 99244 with a place of service 32. Medicare denied the claim, stating that the place of service and CPT code did not match. Any suggestions? Arkansas Subscriber

Answer: The carrier is correct the CPT code and place of service do not match. CPT specifically notes that office or other outpatient consultation codes 99241-99245, including 99244 (Office consultation for a new or established patient ...), "are used to report consultations provided in the physician's office or in an outpatient or other ambulatory facility, including hospital observation services, home services, domiciliary, rest home, custodial care, or emergency department." Place-of-service indicator 32, in contrast, denotes an inpatient facility (specifically, a nursing facility) as the site of care. Initial inpatient consult codes 99251-99255 "are used to report physician consultations provided to hospital inpatients, residents of nursing facilities, or patients in a partial hospital setting," according to CPT, and are appropriate with a 32 place-of service-indicator. Assuming your documentation supports a level-four consult, the correct code in this case is 99254 (Initial inpatient consultation for a new or established patient ...). Similarly, report any follow-up consultations with the same patient using follow-up inpatient consultation codes 99261-99263. CPT codes 99301-99316 also describe services provided to nursing facility patients. If the physician conducts an initial assessment of a patient entering a nursing facility to establish a medical care plan, the appropriate code is generally 99303 (Evaluation and management of a new or established patient involving a nursing facility assessment at the time of initial admission or readmission to the facility). For annual recertification of a care plan, report 99301, and for assessment when the patient incurs a permanent change in condition, report 99302.

Codes 99311-99313 and 99315-99316 describe subsequent daily care and discharge services at various levels of complexity, respectively. Note that the nursing facility codes are appropriate only when the physician provides ongoing care and the requirements of a consult (request, reason and response) have not otherwise been met.