Wiki Coding EM when patient not present

[connieg01]

We had a patients daughter come in to see the doctor with FMLA forms. The forms were for her because she has to care for the patient. Since he spent time with the daughter going over the patients history and filing out the forms, can we code an E&M for the visit?

 

[ewinnacott]

No you cannot code an e/m visit because of no chief complaint and actual patient was not present. However you can code a 99080 but that code is usually not paid. You can at least bill it and get a denial if patient has 2nd insurance so you can send it to them. More than likely though it's going to be patient resp.