Question: Our surgeon has performed an esophageal ablation of polyps for a patient in the past. At a recent appointment, the surgeon counted a review of the findings from the past procedure as part of the time for the E/M code selection, even though the surgeon previously reviewed the findings with the patient at a prior appointment. Is that OK? South Carolina Subscriber Answer: CPT® does not place a limit on how often a provider counts actions like the review of test results or counseling a patient about a specific issue, although different payers may possibly restrict this practice. As a reminder, CPT® allows you to count “both the face-to-face time with the patient and/or family/caregiver and non-face-to-face time personally spent by the physician and/or other qualified health care professional(s)” toward “the total time on the date of the encounter.” Non-face-to-face time can include such activities as: CPT® does not allow you to count non-face-to-face activity time such as: The time as described in your question could be considered counseling and educating the patient/ family or caregiver. In this case, it would be important for the provider to document the need to revisit that information to validate the time spent.