Pharmacy Question for the Week of February 15, 2021

Question:

We have a patient who received three hours of IV hydration. During that time, the patient received two different drugs by intravenous push. Can the entire three hours of IV hydration be coded with the intravenous push injections?

Answer:

The total time the IV hydration ran should be determined first, in this scenario, it ran for 3 hours (or 180 minutes). If the intravenous pushes are documented with an amount of time (i.e., 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.), this time should be deducted from the total time for the IV hydration for selection of the correct CPT code(s). Let’s say the total time documented for 2 IV pushes is 5 minutes. Deduct 5 minutes from 3 hours (or 180 minutes), which equals 175 minutes, to determine the IV hydration drug administration code(s). The coding for this example would be 96374 x1 unit, 96375 x1 unit, and 96361 x3 units because the 175 minutes support the billing units for IV hydration. Note that the entirety of the IV hydration is coded with 96361. Only one initial service may be reported per IV access site per encounter, IV hydration is a secondary service to an IV push injection.

This question was answered in our Coding Essentials for Infusion & Injection Therapy Services. For more hot topics relating to infusion services, please visit our store or call us at 1.800.252.1578, ext. 2.