General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: Can we report inpatient telehealth evaluation and management (E/M) services to Medicare? This has happened in some cases in our practice due to COVID-19.

Nebraska Subscriber

Answer: That depends. Medicare won’t cover initial inpatient E/M services performed via telehealth, stating that these services require in-person service. However, Medicare allows you to perform and report subsequent inpatient hospital E/M services via telehealth once every three days.

Resource: You can access a current list of Medicare covered Telehealth Services for the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-General-Information/Telehealth/Telehealth-Codes.