I was told that our providers (Internal Medicine) can use the 99444 E/M code (online med eval) for the purpose of prescrition refills (V68.1). When I read the description of the E/M code this information seems to be incorrect, especially when taken the guidelines for telephone consults into consideration, where refills are a definite no-no.
My understanding is that it has pretty much the same guidelines as T-cons, plus it can only be used once in a 7 day period to summarize everything that was done by the phys since the pt initiated online contact. It seems more like a summary type of encounter that requires precise documentation such as "Patient (est) contacted me via email in regards to xxxx...pt was last seen (more then 7 days ago & not leading up to a visit), since then I spoke with patient per telehone, refilled several of his/her prescriptions and related the findings of her/his MRI which were xxxxxx." Something to this effect...
HELP, what IS the correct way to utilize this code?
My understanding is that it has pretty much the same guidelines as T-cons, plus it can only be used once in a 7 day period to summarize everything that was done by the phys since the pt initiated online contact. It seems more like a summary type of encounter that requires precise documentation such as "Patient (est) contacted me via email in regards to xxxx...pt was last seen (more then 7 days ago & not leading up to a visit), since then I spoke with patient per telehone, refilled several of his/her prescriptions and related the findings of her/his MRI which were xxxxxx." Something to this effect...
HELP, what IS the correct way to utilize this code?