The National Uniform Billing Committee (NUBC) created a patient discharge status code (21) to define discharges or transfers to court/law enforcement. The code usage includes transfers to incarceration facilities such as jail, prison or other detention facilities.  This code can be used to identify patients for the HCAHPS Court/Law enforcement exclusion.

So what’s new?  Previously, exclusions were only applied to patients that were brought in by law enforcement; as such, it typically only applied to tertiary facilities with an arrangement with a jail or prison.  The new code makes it clear that discharge is equally important—whether a patient is in custody upon admission or is discharged to jail or prison, the patient is to be excluded from HCAHPS research.