The documents released earlier this month offer details on 42 eCQMs for telehealth services during the 2020 performance period and 39 eCQMs for telehealth services during the 2021 performance period. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released additional details on telehealth reimbursement through quality reporting programs for the 2020 and 2021 performance […]
Become a coding superhero with X-ray vision. When is imaging separately reported, and how? The relative value units (RVUs) for some codes include the provider’s use of imaging to accurately visualize the specimen or problem the code is meant to address. The most notable changes with regards to radiology for 2020 can be found […]
Physicians will potentially have a lighter documentation burden and more time to spend with patients in 2021 thanks to an overhaul of Medicare Coding guidelines for outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) services. “The whole point was to have people not document stuff that was not necessary, not relevant to the clinical management of the patient,” […]
Q: Some of our Medicare patient’s complain about their $20 or so co-pay when we bill ‘Combination visits’, a G0439 Annual Wellness visit codes(AWV) and another Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code for managing their problems during the same visit. Is there a good solution to this issue or any advice to maybe remedy this? A: This […]
E&M codes are the most frequently used codes in any physician practice. Change is coming to the world of evaluation and management (E&M) services. With the Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule for 2020 now published, we know there are big changes to be expected in 2021. The good news is that there’s a year to […]
You are indeed correct that ICD-10 coding makes its updates on Oct. 1 for the following year. This means the codes actually update on that date and any date of service on or after Oct. 1 must use the new or updated code to be valid. CPT codes or procedure codes actually do not update […]
A “bold proposal” to reduce the documentation burden on physicians was released as part of CMS’s 2019 proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). This seemed to have begun as an effort to listen to stakeholders and address the problems of out-of-date guidelines, cloning, EHR misuse, and problems that have evolved since the inception of the […]
An overview of the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule: The proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) rule for 2020 was officially released on Aug. 14, 2019, encompassing various elements. Among these are proposals such as adjusting the PFS conversion factor to $36.09, introducing new HCPCS codes for bundled episode-of-care treatment for opioid use disorders, revising […]
Changes to payment, coding, and documentation policies for evaluation and management (E/M) services finalized in the 2019 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) final rule are necessary to align with the American Medical Association’s (AMA) revisions to the 2021 CPT code set for office/outpatient E/M visits, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The proposed policy changes for E/M visits are […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing major payment changes to sinus endoscopy services. The 2020 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule (page 53) includes the following excerpt: What Does This Mean for Physicians? This means CMS is looking to apply the multiple endoscopy rules, as are found with colonoscopy endoscopic sinus codes, when […]