Wiki Preventive Medicine Services -dermatology practice in Ohio

[marygareau]

I work for a dermatology practice in Ohio. Right now we just bill for New Patient or Established Patient E/M services, along with whatever procedure was performed on the same date of service. I was wondering about the Preventive Medicine Services. A lot of our patients have recurring issues, or come in due to having had skin cancer, and need or want an overall "Preventive" exam. My question is, due to never having billed these codes, do we just start billing them? Are they something we should consider, or should we just continue on with the regular office visit E/M codes? If anyone has experience with these codes, or any useful information about these codes, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thank you!!

Mea

 

[eadun2000]

I work for a dermatology practice in Ohio. Right now we just bill for New Patient or Established Patient E/M services, along with whatever procedure was performed on the same date of service. I was wondering about the Preventive Medicine Services. A lot of our patients have recurring issues, or come in due to having had skin cancer, and need or want an overall "Preventive" exam. My question is, due to never having billed these codes, do we just start billing them? Are they something we should consider, or should we just continue on with the regular office visit E/M codes? If anyone has experience with these codes, or any useful information about these codes, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thank you!!

Mea

Preventative medicine codes that you are wondering about are an overall physical, including lungs, heart, etc, etc, etc. You need to continue to bill the current outpatient codes that you are already using. If the patient does not have any new problems found, you can always use their history of if they have skin cancer that has been excised and no longer is under treatment. When I worked derm, we always saw skin cancer patients at least twice a year or sooner if a new problem came up. It was always (as it should be) with office E&M codes, not preventative medicine codes. Hope this helps.