Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

Question: Our practice performed a visual field test on a patient who was referred to us by another doctor. Our ophthalmologist was not present for the test; a tech performed the test. Should I consider this patient an established patient?California SubscriberAnswer: No, you should consider the patient "new" until a face-to-face encounter with your ophthalmologist occurs. Since the visual field test does not carry a distinction of "new" or "established," the test would be reported as usual. If the patient returned to the office at a future date, the patient would be considered "new" for purposes of billing an E/M code. It would not be appropriate to report an E/M service on the day of the visual field testing since no physician saw the patient. Do not make the mistake of reporting 99211 as this code requires the patient to have been previously evaluated by the physician and the physician [...]