Can I bill for 20 minutes of critical care time?
by Grant Christman - Probably not.
In order to bill for per diem or initial time-based critical care, you must provide and document at least 30 minutes of critical care time.
If a colleague billed for the first hour of time-based critical care (99291), you can bill for additional critical care time provided while cross-covering (99292). The total amount of time between you and your colleague must be at least 75 minutes, and you must have provided at least 15 minutes of that yourself.
You should always document the exact amount of critical care time provided in minutes.