Wiki E&M Levels of Service

[klynncpc]

My boss is meeting with some of our physicians to go over how to choose levels of service. She has asked me to find or compose something to give to them that explains what is needed for a level 2, level 3, and so on. It needs to be simple and to the point. But, I'm finding that hard to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[thomas7331]

I agree that finding a "simple and to the point" way to teach evaluation and management coding is not an easy thing. But it can be done if you know your physicians well and can tailor the guidelines to the specific types of work that they do. For example, you can simplify the exam instructions to just the types of exam that they usually document, whether it's a specialty exam or a multi-system. Some physicians have two or three templates for their usual exams, so if you look at those, you can tell them which exams count for what, rather than teaching the entire guidelines. Also, the table of risk can be cut down to just the types of situations that your physicians frequently see and the types of conditions that they treat - eliminate the unusual options that aren't relevant. This way you can probably get a job aid down to a single or two pages.

I find it useful also to give some general common types of patient scenarios that typically fall into certain code levels as a guide. The clinical examples in Appendix C of the CPT book can also be useful for this. Hope this helps some, good luck!

 

[amexnikki23]

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