Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Industry Notes:

Get the Scoop on COVID-19 Counseling Payments

If you’re testing patients for COVID-19 and counseling them on self-isolation, you can now bill Medicare for that.

On July 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced reimbursement options for physicians and other healthcare providers who counsel patients after COVID-19 testing on things like self-isolation, review of signs and symptoms, available services, mask wearing, contact tracing, and household testing protocols.

“CMS will use existing evaluation and management (E/M) payment codes to reimburse providers who are eligible to bill CMS for counseling services no matter where a test is administered, including doctor’s offices, urgent care clinics, hospitals and community drive-thru or pharmacy testing sites,” advises an agency release.

A counseling checklist is available to make it easier for providers to run through the questions with patients.

View the release and link to the counseling checklist at www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-and-cdc-announce-provider-reimbursement-available-counseling-patients-self-isolate-time-covid-19