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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Billing and Finance

Next Reply: Re:Coding time pt died
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Post Coding time pt died
Author: dvangoethen
Date: Apr 15, 2010 10:06 am
We had a patient that we saw earlier in the day, the family called at 3 a.m. the next morning, stating patient was not breathing. We went to the home and pronounced patient dead, called the mortuary, and stayed with the family until the body was picked up. How do you bill for this time? The patient was there but was dead.
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
Re:Coding time pt died (by JulieP on 04/15/2010)
Typically in the inpatient setting providers can bill discharge day management codes, so I don't know that you can't bill for a home visit to pronounce the patient's death.
Julie Pipke-CPC, RM MCW
Re:Coding time pt died (by bsmith on 04/22/2010)
It's my understanding that no fees are allowed (including discharge day management codes) on the day a patient dies.
This is an issue of some contention in hospitals where a large amount of MD work may occur on the day of death, and in nursing homes where the facility does not receive any reimbursement for the care provided on day of death.
As far as I know professional services are not reimbursed if they are provided on the day of death.
Re:Coding time pt died (by JulieP on 04/29/2010)
I've never heard of not being allowed to bill fees for the date of death. We've never had issues with not being reimbursed for DDM. The only issues we've had is billing for the professional component of a test with a date of intepretation post death.
Julie Pipke-CPC, RM MCW

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