Wiki medical assistant charges

[dmazzola]

Our doctor has asked if time a pateint spends with a medical assistant is billable. (ie. taking out sutures, fitting a brace, etc.) I'm under the impression we can bill a level 1 E&M visit for an M.A. but would like to confirm before getting back to the doctor.
Thanks!

 

[coder911]

Yes, you are correct. A 99211 is billable under those conditions. If you go to www.aafp.org and type "billing for medical assistants" you will be able to find many articles to support this.

Here's a paragraph from one of the articles on AAFP:
"While MAs do not directly generate large amounts of revenue, physicians can bill for simple visits involving MAs by using code 99211. Per CPT, this code is for "Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient that may not require the presence of a physician. Usually, the presenting problem(s) are minimal and 5 minutes are typically spent performing or supervising these services.”

 

[storturica]

How do I post a question like this?
I have a question about diabetes coding for multiple manifestations.
If a patient has diabetes with multiple manifestations, such as: nephropathy, and retinopathy how exactly do you code for that. I know that diabetes comes primary and then the manifestation is listed, but do you have to code for the diabetes two times because there is no multiple manifestaion code for diabetes?

 

[beckiw]

Yes, you would code two different diabetes codes with two additional manifestation codes.

Becki