initial home visit detailed cpt code

Billing and Coding for Physician Home Visits

by Rajeev Rajagopal | Published on May 23, 2018 | Medical Coding

Physician home visits have begun making a comeback, according to a recent report from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). With 80% of U.S. adults age 65+ having one or more chronic diseases, this is a welcome development. Point of care testing along with advancements in home health technology and support have improved the physician’s ability to cater to the needs of older weak patients with multiple comorbidities outside the office setting. Outsourcing medical coding can ensure accurate claim submission for optimal reimbursement for services provided. However, to qualify for coverage, the medical record must document the medical necessity of the home visit made in lieu of an office or outpatient visit. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) and several contractors of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) scrutinize physician home services billed to the Medicare program to ensure that house calls are medically necessary and not for the convenience of the patient, the patient’s family, or the physician (or provider).

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Physician Home Visits must be “Medically Necessary”

Medicare.gov defines “medically necessary” as “health-care services or supplies needed to prevent, diagnose, or treat an illness, injury, condition, disease, or it’s symptoms and that meet accepted standards of medicine”.

CPT codes 99341 through 99350, Home Services codes, are used to report E/M services provided to a patient residing in his or her own private residence and not any type of facility. According to a 2017 AAPC report:

• For home visits to qualify as medically necessary, providers need to document if the home visit is based upon a one-time need, or if the visit is provided to meet an ongoing or permanent need because of the patient’s physical, medical, mental, or psychological issues.
• The physician should provide proof that the patient is not physically capable of traveling to the office either this one time, or on an ongoing basis, due to physical or mental issues and not due to financial or other personal reasons.
• Home services cannot be provided at the physician’s convenience (for e.g., visiting senior independent living facilities on a routine basis, without requests for or by patients).
• Under Medicare’s home health benefit, the beneficiary must be confined to the home for services to be covered.
• For home services provided by a physician billed under CPT codes 99341 through 99350, the beneficiary does not need to be confined to the home.

CGS Adminstrators, LCC points out that if the physician visits the patient in his/her home on a regular basis, each note should show how the patient’s condition has changed. Providers should take care to avoid cloned or copied documentation that does not explain how the patient’s condition has improved or deteriorated.

Home Services CPT Code Range 99341- 99350

Codes 99341-99350 report evaluation and management (E/M) services provided in a private residence (place of service 12) and cannot be used if the patient resides in a shared living facility or group home. The description of home visits includes the average time to be used when counseling/coordination of care dominate the visit (for e.g., comprises over 50 percent of total face-to-face time between the provider and patient).

Codes for New Patients

99341 Home visit; low severity problem, 20 min. 99342 moderate severity problem, 30 min. 99343 moderate to high severity problem, 45 min. 99344 high severity problem, 60 min. 99345 patient unstable or significant new problem requiring immediate attention 75 min.

Codes for Established Patients

93347 Self-limited or minor problem, 15 min. 99348 Low to moderate problem, 25 min. 99349 Moderate to high problem, 40 min. 99350 Patient unstable or significant new problem requiring immediate physician attention, 60 min.

If other services such as advanced care planning, diagnostic services, and some minor procedures are performed, they can be documented and billed in addition to the visit code in this setting.

Demographics, Insurance, and Billing Information

As the home visit with a new patient has the same business requirements as a visit to the office, AAPC says that maintaining a complete and accurate medical record for each patient is critical. Physicians should gather the necessary demographic and insurance information and provide patients with the appropriate forms such as Notice of Privacy Practices, general consent for treatment, new patient intake form, history form, and financial policies.

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Billing for Physician Home Visits – Risk Factors

DC based Law Firm Liles Parker lists the risk factors that can lead Medicare reviewers to deny claim payment:

• If it appears that one or more of the home services were was conducted for the convenience of the patient, the patient’s family, or the physician
• The documentation does not prove that the patient was not able come to the physician’s office or an outpatient clinic for care.
• The medical record does not clearly show that the patient, his/her family or another clinician involved in the case sought the initial service
• The home services are provided at a frequency that exceeds that which is typically provided in the office and acceptable standards of medical practice
• The physician does not personally provide the home services. The service is performed by a non-physician practitioner (NPP) but the claim is being billed at the physician’s rate.
• The home services are solely provided by an NPP but only the physician, not the treating NPP, is credentialed with Medicare.
• The specific home services performed could be provided by a visiting nurse or home health agency.

With OIG and many CMS contractors auditing home services (CPT codes 99341 through 99350) billed to Medicare, participating physicians should understand the coverage and billing requirements. The documentation should provide clear proof of medical necessity. Other services such as minor procedures or advanced care planning services can also be rendered in a variety of living situations and providers should be familiar with the specifics to each code location. It is important that physicians review all the relevant CPT codes with their medical billing company . Partnering with an experienced medical billing and coding service provider can help home-based primary care practices achieve savings while delivering holistic, team-based care to old, sick, frail, or functionally limited people.

Rajeev Rajagopal, the President of OSI, has a wealth of experience as a healthcare business consultant in the United States. He has a keen understanding of current medical billing and coding standards.

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April 29, 2024

Quick Coding Reference Sheet – Home visits

This is the quick reference sheet for home visits using the 1995 1997 guidelines. As of Jan 1, 2023 these guidelines will no longer be in use. Why have we kept it on the site? In case you are auditing home visits from prior to 2023

Use this reference guide to select a level of service for new and established patient home visits, based on the key components or time using the 1995/1997 guidelines.

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Last revised November 14, 2023 - Betsy Nicoletti Tags: E/M reference sheets

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Home Care and Domiciliary Care Visits (Codes 99321 - 99350)

Guidance for the updates to §30.6.14 in Chapter 12, Pub. 100-04, by adding place of service codes (POS) 13 (assisted living facility) and 14 (group home) to be included with the CPT Domiciliary, Rest Home (e.g., Boarding Home), or Custodial Care Services codes.

Download the Guidance Document

Issued by: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Issue Date: September 02, 2005

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this database lack the force and effect of law, except as authorized by law (including Medicare Advantage Rate Announcements and Advance Notices) or as specifically incorporated into a contract. The Department may not cite, use, or rely on any guidance that is not posted on the guidance repository, except to establish historical facts.

A step-by-step approach that saves time coding E/M office visits can now be tailored to hospital and nursing home E/M visits as well.

KEITH W. MILLETTE, MD, FAAFP, RPh

Fam Pract Manag. 2023;30(1):8-12

Author disclosure: no relevant financial relationships.

Following the major revisions to coding evaluation and management (E/M) office visits in 2021, 1 a similar revamp has been made for coding E/M visits in other settings. Effective Jan. 1, 2023, the history and physical examination requirements have been eliminated for coding hospital and nursing home visits. 2 As with office visits, hospital and nursing home coding is now based solely on medical decision making (MDM) or total time (except for emergency department visits, which must be coded based on MDM, and hospital discharge visits, which must be coded based on time). This further streamlines E/M coding, creating one unified set of rules for office, nursing home, and hospital visits.

Hospital and nursing home E/M visits are divided into three groups: initial services (i.e., admissions), subsequent services, and discharge services. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), initial visits are “when the patient has not received any professional services from the physician or other qualified health care professional or another physician or other qualified health care professional of the exact same specialty and subspecialty who belongs to the same group practice, during the inpatient, observation, or nursing facility admission and stay.” 2 After the patient has received care from that group once, all other visits are subsequent until the discharge service. When the patient transitions from inpatient to observation, or vice versa, that does not begin a new stay eligible for an initial services visit.

CPT codes 99234-99236 are for patients admitted to the hospital and discharged on the same date. For patients with multi-day stays, use 99221-99223 for initial services, 99231-99233 for subsequent visits, and 99238-99239 for discharge services.

Initial nursing home visits are coded with 99304-99306. CPT is deleting the code for nursing home annual exams (99318), which will instead be coded as subsequent nursing home visits (99307-99310).

Two sets of observation care codes (99217-99220 and 99224-99226) should no longer be used as of Jan. 1. Observation services have instead been merged into the corresponding initial service, subsequent service, and discharge codes.

These changes open the door to a simpler, quicker coding process. Many of the principles that already apply to E/M office visit coding now apply to hospital and nursing home E/M coding, but there are some differences in the details. This short guide can help physicians navigate the changes.

Coding for evaluation and management (E/M) visits in hospitals and nursing homes is now much like coding E/M office visits.

This unified set of coding rules allows physicians to quickly code nearly all visits using a template that starts with total time.

There are a few key differences to be aware of, such as total time spent past midnight on the date of service can be counted for hospital E/M visits, but not for office E/M visits.

MEDICAL DECISION MAKING

Determining the level of MDM for hospital and nursing home visits is now much like doing so for office visits. 3 The four MDM levels are straightforward, low, moderate, and high. They are determined by three factors: the number and complexity of problems addressed, the amount and complexity of data reviewed, and the patient's risk of complications, morbidity, or mortality.

If you feel confident coding office visits based on MDM, you can use that knowledge to code hospital and nursing home visits based on MDM as follows:

A level 1 initial or subsequent hospital visit requires the same MDM components as a level 3 office visit,

A level 2 initial or subsequent hospital visit requires the same MDM components as a level 4 office visit,

A level 3 initial or subsequent hospital visit requires the same MDM components as a level 5 office visit.

Several medical decisions that are more common in hospitals than office settings carry enough risk that, when paired with high-level problems, they call for the top visit level. These include the decision to escalate hospital care (e.g., transfer to the intensive care unit), the decision to deescalate care or discuss do-not-resuscitate orders due to poor prognosis, the decision to use IV narcotics or other drugs that require intensive monitoring, and decisions regarding emergency surgery for patients with or without risk factors or non-emergency surgery for patients with risk factors.

There are new time thresholds for each level of service for initial hospital visits, subsequent hospital visits, and nursing home visits to use when you are coding by total time. Instead of offering a time range like office visits (e.g., a 99214 office visit requires 30–39 minutes), nursing home and hospital care visits require that you meet or exceed specific times (e.g., a 99232 subsequent hospital visit requires 35 or more minutes).

When coding initial hospital visits by total time, you can count all the time you spend caring for the patient on admission even if some of it extends after midnight on the calendar day of the admission. According to the AMA, “a continuous service that spans the transition of two calendar dates is a single service and is reported on one calendar date. If the service is continuous before and through midnight, all the time may be applied to the reported date of service.” 3 This differs from office visits, for which you may count only the time on the date of the visit. Otherwise, the definition of total time for hospital and nursing home E/M visits is similar to that of office visits. It includes the time you personally spend on E/M for that patient before, during, and after the face-to-face services. It does not include staff time, time spent on separately reportable procedures, travel time, or teaching time.

A SIMPLER WAY TO CODE

Like the 2021 changes to office visit E/M coding, the 2023 changes should make coding hospital and nursing home E/M visits simpler and quicker.

The universal coding template suggests coding by time first if that will appropriately credit you for the work you did. It's the most straightforward and easy method. But if you believe MDM will credit you for a higher level of work, then step 2 is to determine what level of problems (low, moderate, or high) you addressed and whether you managed (prescribed, adjusted, or decided to keep the same) a prescription medication. Answering those two questions allows you to code most visits quickly using MDM. For the few visits that remain, you will need to proceed to steps 3 or 4, which may require you to tally data points and are therefore more time-consuming.

The template was adapted from a prior FPM article on office E/M coding 4 by adding nursing home and hospital visit times and relabeling office-visit level 3, 4, and 5 problems as low-, moderate-, and high-level problems.

UNIVERSAL CODING TEMPLATE

Step 3: MDM with simple data

Moderate-level problem PLUS one of the following:

• Interpret one study (e.g., “I personally looked at the x-ray, and it shows …”),
• Discuss patient management or a study with an external physician (one who is not in the same group practice as you or is in a different specialty or subspecialty),
• Modify workup or treatment because of social determinants of health.

EQUALS moderate-level visit, even without medication management (see codes in Step 2).

Step 4: MDM counting data points

Moderate-level problem PLUS at least three points from data counting (below),

EQUALS moderate-level visit (see codes in Step 2).

High-level problem PLUS at least two of these three:

• Interpret one study (e.g., "I personally looked at the x-ray, and it shows..."),
• Discuss patient management or a study with an external physician,
• At least three points from data counting (below),

EQUALS high-level visit (see codes in Step 2).

Data counting:

• Review/order unique test/study: 1 point for each,
• Review external notes: 1 point for each unique source,
• Assessment requiring use of an independent historian (family member or other person who can provide a reliable history for a patient who is unable to): 1 point max.

Documentation to support your coding should also be easier going forward. While documenting a medically appropriate history and physical exam is still certainly important for good patient care, it's no longer required for coding; therefore, you should be able to determine the code level from only a few lines of documentation. The quiz below provides some examples to pair with the coding template for practice.

Hopefully, using this step-by-step approach to the 2023 E/M coding changes will allow you to code many types of visits more quickly and accurately so you can spend more time with your patients and less time on the computer.

Millette KW. Countdown to the E/M coding changes. Fam Pract Manag . 2020;27(5):29-36.

CPT evaluation and management (E/M) code and guideline changes. American Medical Association. Accessed Nov. 2, 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2023-e-m-descriptors-guidelines.pdf

Table 2 - CPT E/M office revisions level of medical decision making (MDM). American Medical Association. Accessed Nov. 2, 2022. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2019-06/cpt-revised-mdm-grid.pdf

Millette KW. A step-by-step time-saving approach to coding office visits. Fam Pract Manag . 2021;28(4):21-26.

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List With CPT Codes For New Patient Office Visits | Short & Long Descriptions and Lay-Terms

4 CPT codes describe the procedures for a new patient office visit . These codes are used to record the level of complexity of the evaluation, management, and medical decision-making during the visit. You can find a complete list of office visits for both established patients and new patients here.

1. CPT Code 99202

Lay-term: CPT code 99202 is used when a healthcare provider performs an office visit for a new patient that requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and straightforward medical decision making. The total time spent on the encounter must be 15 minutes or more.

Long description: Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and straightforward medical decision making. When using total time on the date of the encounter for code selection, 15 minutes must be met or exceeded.

Short description: New patient office visit, straightforward medical decision making, 15 minutes.

1.2. CPT Code 99203

Lay-term: CPT code 99203 is used when a healthcare provider performs an office visit for a new patient that requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and a low level of medical decision making. The total time spent on the encounter must be 30 minutes or more.

Long description: Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and low level of medical decision making. When using total time on the date of the encounter for code selection, 30 minutes must be met or exceeded.

Short description: New patient office visit, low level medical decision making, 30 minutes.

1.3. CPT Code 99204

Lay-term: CPT code 99204 is used when a healthcare provider performs an office visit for a new patient that requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and a moderate level of medical decision making. The total time spent on the encounter must be 45 minutes or more.

Long description: Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and moderate level of medical decision making. When using total time on the date of the encounter for code selection, 45 minutes must be met or exceeded.

Short description: New patient office visit, moderate level medical decision making, 45 minutes.

1.4. CPT Code 99205

Lay-term: CPT code 99205 is used when a healthcare provider performs an office visit for a new patient that requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and a high level of medical decision making. The total time spent on the encounter must be 60 minutes or more.

Long description: Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and high level of medical decision making. When using total time on the date of the encounter for code selection, 60 minutes must be met or exceeded.

Short description: New patient office visit, high level medical decision making, 60 minutes.

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