Professional coding for Palliative Care Providers
Our palliative care team providers document the diagnoses being treated during the inpatient admission in their progress notes. The diagnoses are being treated by our hospitalist team, but are not treated by the palliative care team.
Our outpatient/professional billing & coding team is asking, can/should the palliative care provider’s professional coding include all of the medical diagnoses being treated, or are they only to code for the palliative care code(s)?
Comments
The diagnoses may overlap with the attending physician - for example: we both may be treating acute COPD exacerbation and my efforts are directed towards the dyspnea (versus the bronchospasm that the pulmonologist is treating). Because Palliative Medicine is designated as a separate specialty, we can submit diagnoses codes that are the same as the Pulmonologist (for example) and still get paid. This patient could also have Anxiety and Moderate Malnutrition. If I am addressing, I would submit them on my ProFee claim AND would include the code for Palliative Care Encounter (Z51.5).
Beth Wolf, MD