Tag: Documentation

E&M revised Codes

What to Expect with the 2021 E&M Revisions

  A work group put together by the American Medical Association (AMA) that also represents the AMA’s Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel and the AMA/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC) has put together revisions to office and outpatient evaluation management (E&M). These will take effect on January 1, 2021. So how will this affect dermatologists? Well, […]
New EM office visit Codes

10 Tips To Prepare Practices For E/M Office Visit Codes Changes

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has taken steps to overhaul codes used for Evaluation and Management (EM) office visit codes. The initiative aims to reduce documentation burdens that interfere with patient care, the American Medical Association says. The professional organization for the nation’s physicians is providing a series of educational materials to support […]
EM Code

Final Physician Payment Rule Keeps E/M Code Changes

CMS on Friday issued its 2020 final rules for the Physician Fee Schedule, including a streamlining of evaluation and management services (E/M) reporting that was rolled back from an earlier proposal in a change providers applauded. The final rule, which is mostly unchanged from the proposed rule put forward in July, also cuts payments to physical therapists […]
EM Guidelines

What Happens When E/M Guidelines Change?

Medical coders, billers, auditors, and other healthcare business professionals started Day 2 of AAPC’s Regional Conference in New York City getting the scoop on the proposed changes to evaluation and management (E/M) services coding and E/M guidelines. E/M Guidelines Changes Are About Time Conference attendees were eager to hear Raemarie Jimenez, CPC, CDEO, CIC, CPB, CPMA, […]
Physician Assistant Bill

When is a PA an Assistant Surgeon?

A physician assistant (PA) serves as an assistant surgeon only to suture and close an incision. There is no documentation that the PA performed any other function to assist the primary surgeon during the surgery performed on the Medicare patient, such as providing extra hands needed for tasks which required more than the surgeon’s two […]
E/M coding and reporting

Evaluation and Management Codes…Why Bother?

Denials and how to not get discouraged with evaluation and management codes, and how to appeal There Is Little More Frustrating To Chiropractors And Billers Than Evaluation And Management Codes: While the service is required both clinically and documentation-wise, it is being bundled more and more often by third-party payers. If both the chiropractic manipulative […]
Evaluation and Management Service Codes

AMA on Evaluation and Management Service Codes Guidelines

Medical coders who were unsure what documentation non-Medicare payers would expect in light of the Patients Over Paperwork Initiative now have more to go on. The initiative reduced documentation requirements for outpatient evaluation and management service codes (CPT® 99201-99215) provided to Medicare Part B patients beginning in 2021. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated in their initiative that, although […]