99232 vs 99233 Coding Comparison (Subsequent Care Hospital Follow-Up).

This lecture will assist physicians and non-physician practitioners (NPP) determine if their inpatient hospital follow-up note documentation meets criteria for a level 2 (CPT ® 99232 mid level subsequent care) or a level 3 (CPT® 99233 high level subsequent care)evaluation and management (E/M) code.  Recovery Audit Contractors will most likely continue to target E/M codes for improper payments.  Physicians and  NPP must pursue documentation education to prevent accusations of over billing and to prevent under billing for work provided.  I am an internal medicine physician with over 10 years experience as a clinical Hospitalist.  Based on my decade of experience and exhaustive review of E/M coding criteria, I believe many level 2  hospital follow-up notes would qualify for a level 3 follow-up note if practitioners understood how to document work already being provided.  The link above provides free access to dozens of billing and coding lectures I have written to help others quickly decipher the complex rules used to determine the correct CPT ® code for most inpatient and outpatient hospital and clinic encounters. CPT ® DEFINITIONS The American Medical Association's 2018 Standard Edition CPT ® provides definitions of all E/M services. This valuable resource is available through Amazon by clicking on the image to the right.  I have previously discussed level two inpatient subsequent care (99232) and level three inpatient sub...

Source: The Happy Hospitalist - June 24, 2014 Category: Internal Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs