Wiki Telemedicine / COVID swab

[MCogdill]

Please help! My pediatric office is doing a LOT of TMV visits (we are in Florida so I mean a LOT) for covid testing; the doctor does the TMV and if he/she feels it necessary they have the parent drive the child to the backdoor of an office where the nurse comes out and obtain a swab for a rapid in-house test.. I found out today that some billers are charging the 2 things separately, as the patient is not IN the office for the appointment, and some billers are charging the test with the TMV. Which is correct?

 

[csperoni]

AMA provided advice on this - specifically Scenario 3. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-05/covid-19-coding-advice.pdf
While I may not agree, their guidance is to bill both:
1) Telehealth 99202-99215 modifier -95 (unless the specific payor has other guidance for telehealth)
2) 99211 for the nurse work of covid swab collection
As this is not something my office is doing, I don't know how many of the payors are actually paying for 2 visits.
Like 99072 - just because it's billable, doesn't mean it will be paid.