Wiki Telehealth with a family member, not the patient

[oceangirl752002]

Can anyone help with this? Provider had a telehealth visit with the daughter of the patient, not the actual patient. Daughter discussed updates on patient about diet (Nutrition appointment), exercise, etc. What is the correct way to bill for this? CPT and ICD-10? Thank in advance

 

[trarut]

We don't bill for visits where the patient is not present. The last practice I was at used the unlisted E/M code for any "family conference" type call but this was pre-pandemic and the practice did not qualify to perform telehealth services. If the patient has Medicare, it's not billable regardless - Medicare requires the patient to be present at any visit.

 

[csperoni]

I agree. We try to avoid these situations in the first place, but on the handful of times it does happen, we just enter an internal no charge code. Even if the majority of the visit is speaking with a family member (elderly patient with dementia, etc), we have the patient participate to the extent they can.