Wiki Observation

[jessica1974]

When a patient is seen by your physician in observation but your physician was not the admitting dr which codes would you use? Since they are not the admitting you cannot use the initial observation codes. I was told you use the subsquent observation codes of 99224-99226. Does anyone else use these codes? Or do you use the established patient codes of 99212-99215?

Thanks a bunch,

 

[RebeccaWoodward*]

When a patient is seen by your physician in observation but your physician was not the admitting dr which codes would you use? Since they are not the admitting you cannot use the initial observation codes. I was told you use the subsquent observation codes of 99224-99226. Does anyone else use these codes? Or do you use the established patient codes of 99212-99215?

Thanks a bunch,

Medicare only allows the admitting MD to report 99224-99226. As for other carriers, most allow 99224-99226. I'm keeping a "heads up" for the Medicare replacement plans if I can't locate a policy online.