SUBJECT:
Coding Changes – Type of Visit and Admission Source
BACKGROUND:
The THA Patient Data System is experiencing an unusually high degree of errors because of improper coding for newborns. The UB-04 codes assigned to newborns changed on Oct. 1, 2007, but many PDS hospitals still are using out-of-date codes and generating a substantial number of errors.
When the patient is a newborn, it is assigned a code of “4” for Type of Visit (Form Locator 14). In all cases when Type of Visit is “4”, it must be accompanied by a special Source of Admission Code (Form Locator 15). These special source codes were updated on Oct. 1, 2007.
The new UB-04 Source of Admission codes now used in conjunction with newborns are:
- 5 – Born inside this hospital;
- 6 – Born outside this hospital;
- E – Transfer from ambulatory surgery center; and
- F – Transfer from hospice and is under a hospice plan of care or enrolled in a hospice program.
The old codes no longer are valid and will cause errors for both PDS and THCIC. They are:
- 1 - Normal delivery;
- 2 – Premature delivery;
- 3 – Sick baby; and
- 4 – Extramural birth.
Hospitals are strongly encouraged to check their newborn coding to ensure that they are using the updated October 2007 Source of Admission codes. Appropriate newborn coding will reduce errors, speed up the release of quarterly reports, improve the quality of the PDS data, and save staff time required for corrections.
If you have questions about errors generated by incorrect newborn coding, or any other coding issues, please contact Thomson Reuters's Client Support Specialists Susan McVittieor Kathryn Kessler at 800/568-3282.
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