Wiki Attempted Hearing Test

[JenniferB7]

We have an audiologist who often sees a pediatric patient that she is unable to test because the patient will not stop crying/screaming. She spends a considerable amount of time attempting to test and when she can't, she is spending even more time counseling the patient's parents. She is not billing for anything since she was unable to obtain an accurate test result and marks the chart as "could not test".

I am curious to hear how other practices handle this type of situation. It seems like she should be able to bill something for the 30+ minutes she is spending with the patient / patient's family.

Thanks!

Jennifer M. Connell, BA, CPC

 

[cingram]

In the past when I billed for peds we would code the hearing test with a -53

 

[jgf-CPC]

In my opinion since she actually spent time and tried testing it should still be billed appending the modifier 52 for reduced services. Let's see if we get other opinions on this.