Wiki ED visit covering 2 calendar days

[PattyGreen]

How do you bill an ED visit crossing 2 calendar days? Patient arrives in the ED at 10pm and the visit crosses into the next calendar day---bill the appropriate 9928x code for the day the patient is initially seen and no code for the following day?

Can the patient status be changed to observation the second day and bill observation?
Thanks!

 

[OCD_coder]

EMTALA has set rules for ED coding to clarify the complexities that an ED is open 24/7. An ED visit is billed on the "start" DOS, so when the visit crosses over calendar days, technically for billing purposes you are on the same DOS.

A facility can decide that the DOS is either when the patient is admitted to the ED or when the provider first goes into the room to see a patient. I have worked for a couple of facilities that do it either way.