Coding Confusion: AMA’s Two-in-One Code Calamity

Who knew that when the venerable American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) combining two hospital encounter service types into one code set of inpatient/observation services – initial and subsequent – consternation would be the outcome. The confusion: what entity can actually bill an inpatient initial code, 99221-99223, and who must default to subsequent codes or report office and other outpatient codes when seeing patients in the observation setting?

The good news: during the next live edition of the long-running and popular Talk Ten Tuesdays Internet broadcast, Terry Fletcher will return to the broadcast and offer her interpretation of the rules, and how multi-specialty practices will handle these changes. Moreover, Fletcher, a nationally recognized professional coder, educator, and auditor, will report on the contrast between CPT® and Medicare when reporting these services.

The live broadcast will also feature these other segments:

• Coding Report: Laurie Johnson, senior healthcare consultant with Revenue Cycle Solutions, LLC, will report on the latest coding news.
• SDoH Report: Tiffany Ferguson, a subject-matter expert on the social determinants of health (SDoH), will report on the news that’s happening at the intersection of coding and the SDoH.
• Journaling John: John Zelem, MD, FACS, founder and CEO of Streamline Solutions Consulting, will continue with his journal entries.
• News Desk: Timothy Powell, CPA, will anchor the Talk Ten Tuesdays News Desk.
• TalkBack: Erica Remer,MD, founder and president of Erica Remer, MD, Inc. and Talk Ten Tuesdays co-host, will report on a subject that has caught her attention during her popular segment.