Wiki Orthopaedic IME and review

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scooter1

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One of My doctors is doing an IME. He is pre-reviewing the patient's previous records
from other physicians. He spent an extensive amount of time reviewing the records.
The papers were stacked a foot high ( I am not kidding ) besides reviewing the films and tests. His question ( and mine) is can he charge for the IME and also for the extensive amount of time it took for him to review this patient's medical records ? I see the codes
99358 and 99359, but have not come across this situation before.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
 
Did he evaluate the patient? From your note, it sounds as though he did not spend any time with the patient. :) I ask cause it will help us understand why you want to use the prolonged service CPTs.
 
Per CPT notes "Prolonged Service Without Direct Patient Contact," you actually can use these codes for that purpose. I would make sure to link these with the actual visit date notes. Will the patient's insurance pay for these CPTs? Are they on their fee schedule?
 
That I don't know as yet. I haven't gone that far into this. I just needed to know if using these codes would be acceptable in this circumstance. I will check into that, though.
Thank you so much for your responses. You have been a great help.
 
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