Pulmonology Coding Alert

Question: If a pulmonologist sees a patient in the morning for one problem and sees him again later in the day for a different problem, how is it coded?


Florida Subscriber

Answer: You should bill only one E/M code per day. Review the documentation for both visits, and bill the code that meets the level of service based on the total documentation, such as 99223 (Initial hospital care, per day, for the evaluation and management of a patient ...).

Answers to You Be the Coder and Reader Questions reviewed by Alan L. Plummer, MD, professor of medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta; and Carol Pohlig, BSN, RN, CPC, ASC, senior coding and education specialist at the University of Pennsylvania department of medicine in Philadelphia.