Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Advantage: Telehealth services are classifiable by time.When billing for patient consultations performed over the phone, keep in mind that Medicare will not reimburse your claim, nor will most commercial carriers. However, you might just get other payers to reimburse on a case to case basis, provided you stick to some specific guidelines.Consider this scenario: An established patient with a history of colds leading to sinusitis calls his otolaryngologist to discuss new acute sinusitis symptoms. The nurse obtains a history via telephone, assesses the patient's condition, and talks to the ENT, who decides to prescribe an antibiotic. The nurse-to-patient call lasts 15 minutes.Code it: You would report this with 98967 (Telephone assessment and management service provided by a qualified nonphysician health care professional to an established patient, parent, or guardian not originating from a related assessment and management service provided within the previous 7 days nor leading to an assessment and [...]