Center to Advance Palliative Care

... ...
For Patients and Families
Partner
Sponsor
 
  Print this page
Views

CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Billing and Finance

Next Reply: Re:Inpatient palliative care
Previous Message: Do we still need to use symptom codes?
Next Message: prolonged service billing

Post Inpatient palliative care
Author: zesmail
Date: Apr 14, 2010 2:21 pm
1. Can you verify...99356 is for the first additional 60 mins, not 30 mins.

2. If you see a pt in pall care clinic and they get admitted and you get consulted inpt, can you bill you initial inpt visit as a new pt?

3. What is RVU?
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
Re:Inpatient palliative care (by JulieP on 04/15/2010)
99356 is for the first 30-74 minutes of prolonged care. CPT 2010 & 2009 are very clear on this. The description of CPT code 99356 does state first hour, however the instructions clearly state less than 60 can be billed with 99356, but nothing less than 30 can.
The inpatient E/M codes are not specific to new or established, if your asked to consult on a patient you have already treated previously, you would bill the inpatient consult codes for non Medicare and the appropriate crosscode if the patient has Medicare.
Regarding RVU's, each CPT has a relative value unit (RVU) assigned to it. You might better understand it by doing a little research on line. I found a decent article that explains it well.
http://www.acro.org/washington/RVU.pdf

IMPORTANT: In order to post a new message or reply to an existing post in the discussion you must login. If you are not a registered member you may join here.
The statements posted in the forum section of capc.org are opinions expressed by website visitors and do not necessarily represent the viewpoints or positions of the Center to Advance Palliative Care(CAPC). CAPC is not responsible for the factual or legal accuracy of any of the statements posted.


General questions about using the CAPCconnect™ palliative care discussion forum?
Email: Jennifer.Raiten@mssm.edu

Lost login username/password questions? Email: Margaret.Schutz@mssm.edu