Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Coding and the mandatory upgrade

I have a thought that may send crazy or overly-materialistic, but I am putting it out there as something to be considered.

We were trained to code visits based on medical complexity and elements of our documentation (for example, including a review of systems etc.). In 2021, revisions to the coding requirements now give us the choice of billing encounters based on the time spent on the date of the encounter.

The time spent on the encounter includes both face-to-face and non-face-to-face time personally spent by the physician. This time includes preparing the note in the EMR ("Documenting clinical information in the electronic or other health record").

If I see a patient and prescribe medication, then the time to write those prescriptions is included in the time spent on the encounter. If I need to spend 5 minutes mapping the meds before prescribing, that is part of the time spent, as well.

If "mapping" pushes my 99213's up to 99214's over the next few weeks, then it is appropriate to bill that way.

It is clear that some number of hours will be spent on mapping and migrating after the upgrade. Are we required to spend those hours in documenting patient care without compensation?


Anyone agree or disagree?

Agreed 100% but I'm no coder or Medicare reviewer.

If every physician in the US has to do this mapping of meds in their EMR and you get audited, your argument is solid. However explaining to the reviewer that you spent more time on the patient because of mapping the meds will get some quizical looks because they do not know what the mapping of the meds involve. You will have to show them and hope they agree with you. Since it is Medicare you probably would lose anyway; they always win.

I wonder if anyone anywhere has ever had to do mapping of meds?

ok you made me laugh

And to invoke Monty Python... now for something completely different.

Mapping medications and their effects on the body

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