Billing Upper respiratory tract infections with fever
Maybe a stupid question.
Still getting into the swing of outpatient FM. Been doing hospitalist for several years before this.
Obviously this time a year, we all see a lot of URI. Being 1 year into practice, this time of year, it's my most common visit. I usually knock these out pretty quickly and have always considered them a level 3.
We use Epic, and it has a built in coding "wand" that shows you the components of the billing/coding criteria. The thing that caught my eye tonight was
"1 Acute illness with systemic symptoms."= Level 4 problem addressed. Obviously prescription medication gets you the 2nd component for a level 4.
Reading that, it sounds like if a patient has systemic symptoms like fever, fatigue, chills, etc., then if you're prescribing medication, that bumps the URI up to a level 4.
I certainly don't want to be greedy and wind up in any sort of trouble. But I also don't want to underbill.
I'm curious how other FM docs bill these visits?