Wiki E&M PHONE AUDIO ONLY

[cruby82@yahoo.com]

Outside start time to end time of a phone/audio only visit, if a provider adds extra time for coordination of care - is this added to the time of the phone visit and then apply to the appropriate level? I am confused with this as my thought is that this applies to telehealth. audio/visual. EX: START TIME 9:00 -END TIME 9:15, 10 minutes extra time documented for chart & labs reviewed for coordination of care. What level is billed?

 

[csperoni]

For telephone via audio only (99441-99443), you can only count the time spent on the phone with patient.
For telehealth via video (99202-99215), you count all time spent by the provider on the encounter on the date of service.
Your example - 15 minutes phone time plus10 minutes other time would result in 99442 for telephone/audio or 99213 if telehealth video.

 

[jkyles]

Outside start time to end time of a phone/audio only visit, if a provider adds extra time for coordination of care - is this added to the time of the phone visit and then apply to the appropriate level? I am confused with this as my thought is that this applies to telehealth. audio/visual. EX: START TIME 9:00 -END TIME 9:15, 10 minutes extra time documented for chart & labs reviewed for coordination of care. What level is billed?

Hi there,
The guidelines for the telephone codes and office/outpatient are completely different. I recommend reviewing the full descriptors and guidelines for telephone E/M. For example, telephone time only applies to medical discussion, so in this scenario the start/stop time should be backed by documentation that indicates there was a full 15 minutes of medical discussion and not, for example - 13 minutes of complaining about the weather and two minutes of medical discussion.

 

[tmcknight86]

So the only way a provider gets to count the time reviewing the chart before and finishing documenting after is if the visit becomes a telehealth (video) visit? Is this correct?

 

[jkyles]

So the only way a provider gets to count the time reviewing the chart before and finishing documenting after is if the visit becomes a telehealth (video) visit? Is this correct?

The encounter has to be a telehealth visit, yes.