Primary Care Coding Alert

Follow 1997 guidelines when counting elements, and ethically bump pay approximately $33.The next time your FP sees a patient with a long list of chronic -- but stable -- problems, use this 3-step process to guide your coding -- and start recouping deserved revenue for these chronic condition visits.Step 1: Choose Your Documentation GuidelinesIn the past, you needed to think of the 1997 E/M documentation guidelines when your physician treated chronic conditions. The 1997 guidelines count recording the status of three or more chronic conditions as an extended history of present illness (HPI), which is one element of either a detailed or comprehensive history. By inference, the 1997 guidelines count documentation of the status of one or two chronic conditions as a brief HPI, which is one element of a problemfocused or expanded problem-focused history.Now, however, you can code chronic conditions based on the 1995 guidelines instead, if that's your preference. "CMS has [...]