Wiki office visit and admit same day

[LouiseR1]

In this specific circumstance, patient came in c/o sob has echo, sent for CT scan...later that evening doctor gets a call and admits patient for pulmonary emboli found on CT. Does an H&P / full admit at hopsital.

Assuming all the elements are there for billing, would it be appropriate to bill the admit on top of the office visit? Unfortunately, the office visit has already been billed so I was wondering if I can salvage the H&P since patient was not referred to hospital from office visit??

help is appreciated

thanks!
Louise CPC

 

[Monika Liddle]

Louise,

Unfortunately, you can only bill one EM level per day per physician. I would bill the hospital admit.

Per CPT guidelines for Initial Hospital Care - "when the patient is admitted to the hospital as an inpatient in the course of an encounter in another site of service, all evaluation and management services provided by that physician in conjunction with that admission are considered part of the initial hospital care when performed on the same date as the admission"