Wiki Newborn Care Inpatient

[neodata2002]

Is it appropriate to bill an inpatient hospital discharge (99238-9) when discharging a well newborn rather than billing a subsequent newborn visit (99462)? Our physicians spend a great deal of time preparing to discharge a well newborn.?
Thanks
Melissia

 

[Cynthia Hughes]

Yes. As long as the service provided is that described by the discharge codes, it is appropriate to report either 99238 or 99239 based on the amount of time spent. The following parenthetic instruction follows the codes for newborn care in CPT. (For newborn hospital discharge services provided on a date subsequent to the admission date, see 99238, 99239).

 

[Cynthia Hughes]

Forgot to include that code 99239 can be reported only if time of more than 30 minutes is documented and probably would be unusual in the case of the normal newborn.