Question

A 74 year-old Medicare patient is seen in the outpatient cardiac catheterization department of the hospital for atypical chest pain. The left heart catheterization reveals that the patient has 3-vessel coronary artery disease. The patient returns to the hospital two days later with a Non-STEMI and is taken to the operating room for a 3-vessel CABG. Under what Medicare rule will the left heart catheterization technical component be bundled into the inpatient stay?

a. Two Midnight Rule
b. Three day payment window
c. Readmission Reduction Program
d. Hospital Issued Notices of Non-Coverage

Answer 1

The left heart catheterization technical component will be bundled into the inpatient stay under the Two Midnight Rule of Medicare.

Step-by-step explanation:

The left heart catheterization technical component will be bundled into the inpatient stay under the Two Midnight Rule of Medicare.

The Two Midnight Rule is a Medicare policy that states that if a patient's expected length of stay in the hospital is two midnights or longer, their care will be billed as an inpatient stay and certain services, such as the left heart catheterization, will be bundled into that stay.

Therefore, in this case, since the patient had a 3-vessel CABG surgery, which is an inpatient procedure, the left heart catheterization technical component will be bundled into the inpatient stay under the Two Midnight Rule.