Questions for Dr. Stern
About Your Urgent Care Center
48. I'm a certified coder working for St. Louis Connect Care Urgent Care Center. It was brought to my attention that we may not be billing E/M visits correctly. My impression is to bill a patient as "new" since they usually come each time with a different complaint and then "established" if they return for a specific reason relating to the original date of service. I could not find any guidelines for E/M coding for the Urgent Care setting. Is it not similar to ER billing?
As we discussed, using problem-based coding is not appropriate, unless you have a specific agreement with a payor to do so. Also, it is never allowed with Medicare or Medicaid.
As soon as you get your IT department to allow you to use the site: www.gotomeeting.com I can do a web conference with you on these and other coding issues. Give me a call as soon as you are ready. We will email you a copy of the article of Problem-Based coding.
