Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Here’s why you should be careful when coding longer MDM-decided E/Ms.

Coding for prolonged services became even more confusing in late 2020, when the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published its 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). Needless to say, it caused some confusion; coders were left trying to navigate the CPT^® prolonged services as well as the CMS-created code.

Are you still struggling with coding and billing prolonged services? Read on for more background information and an expert’s take on what to do.

Background: CMS published the 2021 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) on Dec.1, 2020, and created a whole set of headaches for medical coders.

Their disagreement with CPT^® over when service times for 99205 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and high level of medical decision making. When using time for code selection, 60-74 minutes of total time is spent on the date of the encounter.) or 99215 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and high level of medical decision making. When using time for code selection, 40-54 minutes of total time is spent on the date of the encounter.) enter prolonged territory set up two different ways of coding the same scenario.

Understand How CPT^® Views Prolonged Services

As a part of their 2021 revisions to the office/outpatient E/M codes, CPT^® introduced a new prolonged service code: +99417 (Prolonged office or other outpatient evaluation and management service(s) beyond the minimum required time of the primary procedure which has been selected using total time, requiring total time with or without direct patient contact beyond the usual service, on the date of the primary service, each 15 minutes of total time (List separately in addition to codes 99205, 99215 for office or other outpatient Evaluation and Management services).

CPT^® instructed you to add one unit of the code when time documented hits 15 minutes beyond the minimum for the 99205/99215 time ranges — 75 minutes for a new patient visit and 55 for an established patient — and additional units for every 15 minutes beyond those times.

CPT^® example: Your provider sees an established patient for 90 minutes. You would bill 99215 for the first 40 minutes, and +99417 x 3 for the additional 50 minutes.

Know New CMS-Created Code

In the 2021 final rule, CMS argued that +99417 should be used when the total time for visits hits 15 minutes beyond the maximum time range for 99205 (i.e., 89 minutes) and 99215 (i.e., 69 minutes).

To avoid potential confusion with CPT^® guidelines, CMS replaced +99417 with a new prolonged service code now recognized by Medicare and payers following Medicare payment rules: G2212 (Prolonged office or other outpatient evaluation and management service(s) beyond the maximum required time of the primary procedure which has been selected using total time on the date of the primary service; each additional 15 minutes by the physician or qualified healthcare professional, with or without direct patient contact (List separately in addition to CPT codes 99205, 99215 for office or other outpatient evaluation and management services) … (do not report G2212 for any time unit less than 15 minutes)).

Follow These Time-Tested Rules

Fortunately, the following similarities illustrate the ways you can, and cannot, apply both +99417 and G2212 help make your life a little easier:

You can apply both codes when the office/outpatient E/M service is coded based on total time. You cannot add prolonged service codes to service levels calculated by medical decision making (MDM).

Times for the initial and prolonged service are times the provider spends with or without direct patient contact the same day as the encounter per the descriptors for +99417 and G2212. This means “you can count numerous activities, including any time the provider spends updating a patient’s clinical information in the record, providing they occur on the day of the visit,” notes Mary I. Falbo, MBA, CPC, CEO of Millennium Healthcare Consulting Inc. in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

You can only apply the codes to office/outpatient E/M codes 99205 and 99215, and you should not report them on the same date of service as +99354/+99355 (Prolonged service(s) in the outpatient setting requiring direct patient contact …), 99358/+99359 (Prolonged evaluation and management service before and/or after direct patient care …), or +99415/+99416 (Prolonged clinical staff service … during an evaluation and management service in the office or outpatient setting …).

In the end, CMS’ adoption of G2212 “means practices will have to bill Medicare differently for prolonged office visits than they do payers who follow CPT^®. That means more administrative complexity, which is the last thing your practice need these days,” notes Kent Moore, senior strategist for physician payment at the American Academy of Family Physicians.