E/M

“I’m in an ongoing debate with my biller. I have always been under the impression that when billing for infected, ingrown nails that local anesthetics were considered part of the procedure. My biller thinks I can charge for them. What is correct?"

“My documentation for qualified, routine foot care is similar for most patients as little changes in 3 months. But, yes, I do look for changes and make the note reflect such. And I try to make sure notes are not exact copies of previous notes. My notes have plenty of bullet points for an E/M code on each visit. I am primarily charging procedure codes only (CPT 11056, CPT 11721, etc). Can I still bill at least one E/M code per year even when there are no substantive changes as I continually monitor vascular, neurologic and dermal changes each visit? Must I have a new or different diagnosis to bill an E/M code?”

“Medicare pays approximately $40 more for E/M code 99213 versus an injection for a neuroma. Can you give the injection and only bill the E/M 99213?”

“Can you describe what is a “sufficiently detailed exam” to confirm the diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease? I was audited and the debridement of calluses were denied even documentation of every single class finding were listed. Are we supposed to do ankle brachial indexes, Buerger’s test, etc.? Why have class findings if they do not qualify as “sufficiently detailed?”

“I order liver enzymes prior to prescribing an oral antifungal. The blood work is a part of the risk and complications to determine the level of E/M. Can I also include the prescribing of the oral antifungal as part of risk and complications since it is waiting for the lab results?”

“I saw an established patient who returned to the office for Routine Foot Care. The patient also had a new complaint of heel pain. I obtained X-rays of the foot and gave a steroid injection into the heel. Can I bill for the Routine Foot Care and those treatments as well?”

“Medicare pays approximately $40 more for an E/M 99213 versus an injection for a neuroma injection. Can you give the injection and only bill the E/M 99213?”

“My group takes “call” at our local hospital, and this necessitates seeing patients in the emergency room (ER) on occasion. We are not all in agreement regarding what E/M codes should be used in this scenario. We have come up with different encounters: 1. A patient seen in the ER. The patient is then discharged to follow up for outpatient care. 2. A patient is seen in the ER and then admitted for continued medical treatment. 3. A patient is seen in the ER and is taken straight to the operating room for surgical treatment. What E/M code series would you recommend using for these different scenarios? Thank you for the help!”

“After watching some E/M presentations, it was suggested that hospital consultations should be billed with CPT 99252-CPT 99255. When we billed these codes, our EMR system and our clearing house rejected the codes. They are saying effective 1/1/2010, CMS has announced that they will reject these codes. Are we billing the right codes?”

“I am not sure when I should and can bill for an E/M when seeing patients for wound care. Is it reasonable to bill an E/M code if the patient returns for follow up for their ulcer and it is 100% healed? Occasionally hyperkeratotic tissue is present and sometimes I debride the callus to confirm the ulcer has healed. I always spend time on these visits educating the patient on ulcers and the diabetic foot. Would it be appropriate to code for an E/M at this visit since the vast majority of the time is spent counseling the patient prior to discharging them from care?”