Wiki How should I bill this???

[jennyifer]

Here is a scenario... this is a Medicare patient.

The physician has a one hour meeting with the patient's wife to discuss issues related to her husband. The patient has a history of PTSD related to his Vietnam experience and bipolar I.

The DR writes a letter to another DR @ the VA clinic addressing these issues and at the end she suggests that the pt should go into a home health service.

This letter is the only thing the DR gave me to code off of. She wants to bill a CPO 99340 E/M, but this clearly does not meet the documentation requirements.

How should I bill this service??? I cannot find anything!

 

[FTessaBartels]

Patient not present?

If the patient was not present, I'm not sure you can bill at all. Medicare requires face-to-face encounter. Even when the patient is unable to participate in medical decision making and the entire focus of the encounter is counseling/coordination of care with responsible family member (or designated healthcare POA), the patient MUST be present to bill for Medicare.

Sorry

F Tessa Bartels, CPC, CEMC