Source: American Academy of Family Physicians
Evaluation and management (E/M) services are at the heart of what practicing family physicians do every day. That means, of course, that correctly documenting and coding for these services is essential to a practice’s bottom line.
That’s why the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is pulling out all the stops to ensure you’re fully prepared to tackle the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new office visit E/M documentation and coding guidelines, which go into effect on Friday, January 1, 2021.
- Five levels of office visit E/M services will be retained for established patients (CPT codes 99211-99215)
- For new patients, the number of levels will drop to four (CPT codes 99202-99205)
- Time and medical decision-making methodologies will be revised for all office visit E/M codes, and history-taking and exams will only be required when medically appropriate
- Physicians will be able to choose the E/M visit level based either on total time or solely on medical decision-making
- CMS is finalizing a new primary care add-on code intended to reflect visit complexity.
The changes, which aim to lessen physicians’ administrative burden and allow them to spend more time on direct patient care, come in the wake of extensive advocacy by the AAFP and other medical groups.
But as AAFP News noted in coverage published in September, there’s no reason to wait until January to learn about the new guidelines. You can start right now by using the diverse collection of resources the Academy is offering to help you find out what you need to know today.