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Published Date:03/01/2021
Printed Date: 9/22/2015
URL: http://palmgba.com/marlowe/redesign6/article.html
Answer Yes. Hospital and nursing facility discharge services are time-based; codes are utilized to show the total duration of time that a physician or qualified health professional spent to discharge a patient. Time must be documented in the patient’s medical record to support the level of service billed.
Example CPT code 99239 is billed. The patient’s discharge notes states "45 minutes of time spent performing discharge services". The documentation supports the provider billing CPT code 99239 as more than 30 minutes of hospital discharge time is reported. Hospital Discharge Codes CPT Code Code Description 99238 Hospital discharge day management, 30 minutes or less 99239 Hospital discharge day management, more than 30 minutes
Resource: CMS Medicare Claims Processing Manual (Pub. 100-04), Chapter 12, Section 100.1.4 (PDF, 1.1 MB).
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Last Updated: 03/01/2021