Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

... but acupuncture cannot stick a permanent code.

Physicians who are gearing up to provide smoking-cessation counseling to Medicare beneficiaries will find two new codes useful.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced two new smoking cessation counseling codes: G0375 (...three to 10 minutes) and G0376 (...greater than 10 minutes). These codes are retroactive to March 22, when the smoking cessation demonstration began. Acupuncture Gets RVUs, But No Coverage The July update to the Physician Fee Schedule also adds relative value units for the following four acupuncture codes:
   97810 - Acupuncture, one or more needles; without electrical stimulation, initial 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact with the patient
   97811 - ... each additional 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact with the patient, with reinsertion of needle(s)
   97813 - Acupuncture, one or more needles; with electrical stimulation, initial 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact with the patient
   97814 - ...each additional 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact with the patient Codes Don't Equal Payment Though there are RVUs for the acupuncture codes, Medicare stressed that it still won't cover the codes. The RVUs are just there for the convenience of the community, according to CMS.