The American Medical Association recently released Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) 2009. New, deleted, and revised codes went into effect Jan. 1. The biggest change to hospitalist billing involves prolonged care codes (99354-99357). CPT 2009 descriptor revisions make it possible for physicians to contribute non-face-to-face time toward prolonged care services.
Inpatient Prolonged Care
Previous versions of CPT defined code 99356 as the first hour of prolonged physician [inpatient] services requiring direct (face-to-face) patient contact beyond the usual services (reportable after the initial 30 minutes); and 99357 for each additional 30 minutes of prolonged [inpatient] care beyond the first hour (reportable after the first 15 minutes of each additional segment). CPT 2009 has changed prolonged care guidelines to be more consistent with other time-based services: all unit/floor time spent by the physician is considered when reporting 99356 and 99357.1
As with most other evaluation and management services, a face-to-face encounter still must occur. In addition to the time associated with the face-to-face encounter, count the time associated with all other physician activities occurring on the unit/floor (e.g., reviewing images, obtaining information involving overnight events, discussing management options with the family) directed toward an individual patient. The cumulative time spent by the billing provider on a single calendar day is considered for billing. Time spent by someone other than the billing provider cannot be credited toward prolonged care.
As example, a physician cares for a 65-year-old male with uncontrolled diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, and congestive heart failure. Early in the day, the physician rounds, spending a total of 20 minutes reviewing the overnight course of events on the unit, re-confirming the patient history, and performing an exam with the patient. Anticipating the patient’s needs, the physician discusses post-discharge options and care with the patient and his family for 45 minutes. After the discussion, the physician spends an additional 30 minutes relaying information to the team and coordinating care. Merely reporting the highest-level subsequent hospital care service (99233), does not capture the physician’s cumulative effort. It only would account for 40 of the 95 minutes spent throughout the day. In order to capture the remaining 55 minutes, the physician reports 99356 on the same claim form as 99233.
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Do not report prolonged care codes on a separate claim form. Prolonged care codes do not represent an independent service. These codes are reported along with a primary service. They must appear as a separate line item on the claim form, which includes a code representing the primary service. For prolonged care in the inpatient setting, the primary service must be initial hospital care (99221-99223), subsequent hospital care (99231-99233), inpatient consultations (99251-99255), or nursing facility services (99304-99318). Additional examples of billable prolonged care services are in Section 30.6.15.1I of the Medicare manual, available at www.cms.hhs.gov/manuals/ downloads/clm104c12.pdf.