Medical Billing and Coding Services

In 2nd week of March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act. The legislation will allow physicians and other health care professionals to bill Medicare fee-for-service for patient care delivered by telehealth during the current coronavirus public health emergency. 

There are 394 code changes in the 2020 CPT code set, including 248 new codes, 71 deletions, and 75 revisions. In making these updates, the CPT Editorial Panel considered broad input from physicians, medical specialty societies and the greater health care community.

Medicare allows only the medically necessary portion of the visit. Even if a complete note is generated, only the necessary services for the condition of the patient at the time of the visit can be considered in determining the level of an E/M code.

Using Medicare as an example, when outpatient surgeries shift from an HOPD setting to a freestanding ASC, the Medicare payment methodology changes from the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) to the ASC fee schedule.

Medical billing can be a demanding and challenging task for small medical practices. For this reason, many physicians or practice managers make a choice to outsource their medical office billing to a professional medical billing company.