Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: My podiatrist spent about 70 minutes on an evaluation with a patient. What E/M code should I bill to account for my time?

Answer: If you fit the criteria in the level of service for history, medical decision making and level of examination, you may bill a higher level E/M code. On the other hand, you can bill for additional E/M time when the other factors are not of an increased level. In this case you can use 99354 (Prolonged physician service in the office or other outpatient setting requiring direct [face-to-face] patient contact beyond the usual service; first hour [List separately in addition to code for office or other outpatient E/M service) and 99355 (...each additional 30 minutes [List separately in addition to code for prolonged physician service]). When you spend at least 30 minutes beyond the time allowed for the appropriate E/M code time, you would use 99354. If you spend more than one hour and 14 minutes beyond the code you can additionally bill a 99355.