Hospital Discharge Management & Nursing Facility Admission Codes
Contractors pay the hospital discharge code (CPT codes 99238 or 99239) in addition to a nursing facility admission code when they are billed by the same physician with the same date of service.
If a surgeon is admitting the patient to the nursing facility due to a condition that is not as a result of the surgery during the postoperative period of a service with the global surgical period, he/she bills for the nursing facility admission and care with a modifier “-24” and provides documentation that the service is unrelated to the surgery (e.g., return of an elderly patient to the nursing facility in which he/she has resided for five years following discharge from the hospital for cholecystectomy).
Contractors do not pay for a nursing facility admission by a surgeon in the postoperative period of a procedure with a global surgical period if the patient’s admission to the nursing facility is to receive post operative care related to the surgery (e.g., admission to a nursing facility to receive physical therapy following a hip replacement).
Payment for the nursing facility admission and subsequent nursing facility services are included in the global fee and cannot be paid separately.
