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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Billing and Finance

In Reply To: EOL V-coding
Next Reply: Re:Re:EOL V-coding
Previous Message: Re:EOL V-coding

Post Re:EOL V-coding
Author: JulieP [Expert]
Date: Dec 4, 2008 3:59 pm
From strictly a coding/billing background the terms Palliative Care and Hospice seem synonomous to me. Palliative Care is usually provided to patients who are terminal and are expected to die due to their disease/illness. Hospice benefits or hospice care is usually invoked by patients who have a life expectency of 6 months or less.I do not know how this affects the hospital. I think your question requires the expertise of a provider as I'm sure PC & Hospice are not synonomous from a care standpoint.

Julie Pipke, CPC
Reibursement Manager
Medical College of WI
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
Re:Re:EOL V-coding (by Weissman on 12/04/2008)
In follow-up to Julie Pipke's note, I understand the basic issue raised by the thread, separating out palliative care encounters early in the disease trajectory from patients seen closer to the time of death. The V66 code was not designed to capture where in the diseasae trajectory patients are seen, but rather the type of service provided. From a coding perspective, seeing patients early in the disease trajectory for symptom management and goal setting, is no different than seeing a patient near death for the same issues. Hospice gets into a completely different billing world if patients are on the Medicare Benefit. However, the palliative intervention, may be exactly the same: goal setting, symptom control, family support. Bottom line--current coding mechanisms have not caught up with the day-to-day clinical practice of HPM.

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