Practice Management Alert

Question: I have a patient who was seen over three years ago. But, from 2009 through 2011 we renewed his allergy serum to be administered by his PCP. Is he a new patient since he was not actually seen within three years? Or, is the fact he received his serum a "visit" so to speak and I can now only bill an established patient? North Carolina Subscriber Answer: As long as your physician (or any physician in the same specialty in the practice) did not see that patient, you should bill this patient as a new patient using the appropriate code in the 99201-99205 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires these 3 key components ...) range rather than an established patient code (99212-99215, Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient, which requires at [...]