Anesthesia Billing

Here's a question on anesthesia billing we received

Regarding billing for anesthesia services:

Some insurers seem to want the start and stop times in Box 19 (Medicare, for example) while others want it in the shaded area above Date of Service. Is there one place it can go that will make everyone happy?

Box 24G seems like it should always be minutes of anesthesia, except for special cases (such as 99140, etc.), but some examples online show people putting units in that box (15 min = 1 unit). Can you confirm that it should almost always be actual minutes?

Thanks.

Michele answered:

Hi,

I checked with several insurance carriers including Medicare, Wellmark, and Aetna. They all state that anesthesia minutes are reimbursed under units. If you submit the claim with the actual minutes they convert them into units. Some carriers have specific requirements regarding including the start & stop time as well in specific boxes on the CMS (like box 19). Unfortunately there is not one standard that you can follow for all companies. If you want to get reimbursed you must follow their requirements. I hope that helps.