Wiki Hospitalist E/M Coding

[Brenda Ray]

Internal Medicine Physician admits patient to Observation. Hospitalist sees patient the same day. Only admitting MD can assign the Observation codes, so what does the Hospitalist code?

How do you know if this is a new or established patient for a hospitalist since they only follow acute hospital patients and not office patients?

I hope I am making sense!!

Thanks!

 

[wavesograin]

They are both "internal medicine" specialties, so the hospitalist isn't going to get re-imbursed. In our hospital, the internal med / hospitalist providers have implemented a process of communication about who will be giving care to the patient on a given day. Because both are not going to be re-imbursed.

As far as new vs. established pt, this rule does not apply to Obs / IP stays. You use code range 99217-99220 and 99224-99226.