Hospital bill with CRNA per minute charges + anesthesia time (facility) charges

I am auditing a hospital bill (UB04) for appropriateness of charges for a managed care payor. Hospital chart supports 217 minutes of anesthesia. CRNA is a hospital employee

Anesthesia charges on rev code 370 are as follows:

anes crna per minute 217 min $1,128.40
anes 1st half hr 1 $458.00
anes addl half hr 7 $1,757.00

I initially denied the crna charges as included in the anesthesia facility services/staff services are included in anesthesia/ or overhead; unbundling

Hospital nurse auditor disagrees, but has no supporting documentation for why they charge both services in their Hospital bill.

Can you help? What guideline is appropriate?

Thank you,

Isela Coutin, BSc, CPC, CCS, CPMA

re: Hospital bill with CRNA per minute charges + anesthesia time (facility) charges

Hospitals bill the technical component for revenue code 370 for time, use & maintenance of equipment and tech time that are hospital employees. If the CRNA is a hospital employee, they are including that service in the charges for r/c 370. Contracted anesthesia groups handle their own billing unless they have an agreement with the hospital to handle their professional services billing. Uniform Billing Editor is a resource for this situation.