Wiki Discharge and Readmit on same DOS

[laurenelizabeth]

I have a patient that was discharges from OBVS and came back into ER an hour later admitted to OBVS again. Dr. 1 discharged, Dr. 2 readmitted both from same hospitalist group. Can I bill the discharge and admit on same day with a modifier? or how would that work? Thank you.

 

[aheeralal]

That depends...was the pt readmitted for the same reason? I'm a hospitalist coder and here's what I do...

If the readmission was related to the reason for the initial hospitalization, use a codes 99224-99226 and don't forget to add modifier 25 to the second line item. This is an example of when two E/M codes can be billed on the same day.

Alternatively, if the readmission is unrelated to the initial hospitalization, you could report a discharge code and initial inpatient care code on the same dos. Add modifier 25 to the discharge code.

Hope this helps.