Hi
So I have never done coding for patients in a psych unit before, and I was just asked for info I do not have…

We recently took over billing/coding for a Nursing home/hospital. This particular facility is both a nursing home and a hospital with an acute care unit and a psych unit. We are getting denials for our patients who are in the psych unit. So we are wondering, when a psychiatrist admits a patient to the psych unit, is it a requirement to call in an internist to document the history, physical exam and MDM?

What about the patients who are in the psych unit, who develop a separate medical problem such as a UTI, pneumonia, flu, etc? When our providers are seeing these patients in the psych unit, for a condition unrelated to their psych dx, shouldn’t our providers be able to bill for their services? (these are getting denied as well)