Is there a legal restriction to claiming a new initial day of ICU when the patient was discharged from ICU and readmitted within 3 days?

Context

If a patient is discharged from ICU and readmitted within 3 days and we claim a new initial day of ICU management (13870), the claims reject. We find that if we resubmit the claim as item 13873 (subsequent day of ICU management), it is paid. However, this is not strictly a correct claim because the service provided best matches the initial day item 13870. Is there a legal barrier? The practitioner was also experiencing the same problems in relation to a number of other first and subsequent day services such as dialysis, haemofiltration and extracorporeal life support.

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