Wiki Labor Epidural

[sierra]

If a patient has an epidural and the baby is delivered and two hours later the patient needs to go into the OR for removal of a hematoma and the same epidural is dosed should the anesthesologist bill for the two hour time that the epidural was in place (not dosed). Or should they start the anesthesia time over on arrival in the OR?

 

[jdrueppel]

sierra,

Personally, based on the normal flow of care by my anesthesia group, I would not bill for the 2 hrs following delivery that my provider was not monitoring the epidural as, most likely in my group, the anesthesia provider would have turned over care to the OB nursing staff following delivery. If your anesthesia provider fully documented a separate anesthesia record for the trip to the Operating Room for the hematoma and performed face-to-face attendance anesthesia care then I would bill it as a separate anesthesia service. You will need to append the -59 modifier to the second anesthesia service to indicate it is a separately identifiable service.

Julie, CPC