Is The Same Day Admission and Discharge Myth Costing You Money?

There is a long held myth in the medical billing community that you can’t bill for an admission and discharge on the same day. However, the truth of the matter is that you can generally bill for a discharge from one facility and an admission to another, as long as the same physician is present for both events.

This means that the attending physician will leave one facility and go to the next facility. This is a common occurence with transfers between rehab or psych facilities, or a transfer from a hospital to a nursing home.

The dilemma is that since you cannot transfer the patient’s chart from one facility to the other, the second facility will require the doctor to start over from scratch. The physician has to repeat all the administrative work at the new facility that he or she did at the old facility, so it makes sense for the physician to be able to bill for the new admittance and the services performed.

To ensure reimbursement, make sure you that note the different facilities and their full addresses. Additionally, bill the admit and discharge on separate forms to avoid any confusion. Use these tips and when you run across this situation again, you will know that yes indeed, you can bill for both!

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P