Wiki TAVR program

[beth74ann]

I am looking for opinions on this issue. Our cardiologist along with a cardiovascular surgeon are looking into starting a TAVR program. When seeing the patients in the office both physicians will see the patient at the same time. Since these two physicians are of different specialties, will they both be able to bill the E&M code for the office visit? Will a modifier be needed? :

 

[Cyndi113]

I don't think that this would be ethical to bill both visits just because they are different specialties. If they are seeing the patient for the same reason on the same day and doing....? If they were managing different problems, then I would think it would be okay to bill both visits.

 

[beth74ann]

One physician is an interventional cardiologist and the other is a cardiovascular surgeon. Both physicians will actually do different parts of a valve replacement depending on their specialty and this office visit will be to determine if the patient is a suitable candidate for the procedure. This is actually done together to benefit the patient so they spend less time in the physician's separate offices and the doctors are able to discuss the case.

 

[Cyndi113]

Hmmmm, we have interventional cardios and cv surgeons. We don't bill two EMs on the same date for the same reason. Our cardios refer patients to the cv surgeons for TAVR and EVAR.

You also might want to post this in the EM forum.

 

[beth74ann]

Thanks for your input. The two physicians that will be seeing these patient's are from 2 different offices. They have spoken with other facilities who have this program and work it where the 2 physicians see the patients simultaneously. This is the way the want to proceed with styling this new clinic instead of referring the patients to the other physician for their input. It makes for a very strange coding situation. Thanks again.