Wiki 2021 E/M Updates TeleHealth

[Henson65]

Hi everyone!
Hope all is well and everyone is excited for the upcoming holiday season. I have a question regarding the 2021 E/M updates specifically as it relates to Telehealth visits. I had a vendor inform some of our providers that the 2021 updates for Telehealth coding make it mandatory to utilize time as the basis for assigning the E/M levels. I have not heard of this and have already attended one training session for the updates and this was not mentioned....I think the vendor is confused but wanted to reach out to fellow experts to see if anyone else has heard this. I've searched the web but cannot find anything specific to say the updates apply to Telehealth and Face to Face visits, it is just specific to the code set of (99202-99215) which are the codes that are utilized for Telehealth services with no caveat to state time based coding is necessary for Telehealth vs Face to Face visits.

Appreciate anyone's feedback on this!

 

[csperoni]

I have not heard from anyone (official or unofficial) that time must be the determining factor for telehealth. My understanding is either MDM or time for both telehealth and face to face outpatient E/M.
That's not to say that some payor may come up with this rule. Private carriers often make whatever arbitrary rules they want, but I have not heard of this anywhere.

 

[Henson65]

I have not heard from anyone (official or unofficial) that time must be the determining factor for telehealth. My understanding is either MDM or time for both telehealth and face to face outpatient E/M.
That's not to say that some payor may come up with this rule. Private carriers often make whatever arbitrary rules they want, but I have not heard of this anywhere.

Thank you Christine...those are the same feelings/thoughts that I had but thought i would check to see if anyone else has heard of anything. I truly think our vendor is confused on the guidelines or is interpreting things incorrectly.