Pulmonology Coding Alert

Proper incident-to and shared consult reporting prevents errors. If you glean anything from CMS's recent CERT report, it's that you have to buckle up your coding for NPP and support staff services. We're here to help you stay on track with your E/M coding by sharing three common questions and answers. Avoid In-Hospital Incident-To Question: How should we code a nonphysician provider's (NPP's) report of a consult that she performs on a hospital inpatient? Is incident-to consult billing allowed for inpatient NPP services? Answer: Incident-to is not allowed in the hospital at all, says Suzan Berman (Hvizdash), CPC, CEMC, CEDC, senior manager of coding and compliance with the UPMC Departments of Surgery and Anesthesiology. "Shared/split visits are permissible in the hospital setting; however, not for consultations," Hvizdash advises."Unless the physician performed his/her own separate and complete consultative service, the NPP would bill the consultation under his/her own provider number and [...]