As we all know, 2020 has been a year of adapting to drastic changes in how we function in our everyday lives and our professional lives.
As we approach 2021, we continue to see changes in the making. One of the shifts that is swiftly approaching is the E/M coding changes. All of us at MicroMD are committed to getting in front of these changes and assisting our providers with navigating healthcare shifts so that you can get back to the business of healing.
In this article, we want to highlight some of the initiatives that MicroMD is implementing in regards to E/M coding so that you can address these changes within your practice. In 2021 providers will now code based upon Medical Decision Making (MDM), with slightly different criteria, or Time. In order to assist you with these new coding guidelines, we have updated our Encounter Templates in order for providers to easily document their visits with patients based on the new criteria.
We have also enhanced the Face to Face Time tool, which is now called Total Provider Time. This can be merged into the Encounter Report or text template. It allows the provider to access it from within the patient’s chart or from within the encounter which allows providers to efficiently document all the time spent taking care of their patient.
Lastly, we have updated our Encounter Level Calculator feature to reflect the new E/M code changes. This allows the provider to compare MDM versus Time or assist you with effectively calculating Time or MDM. Due to the new changes with E/M coding, practices will need to evaluate their workflow and make necessary changes. Some necessary changes could be reviewing provider schedules, due to the fact that now only providers or other qualified healthcare professionals may track their time. Also, in order to capture time spent the provider may need to evaluate when he spends time preparing for a patient visit, as time must be counted only based on the date of the visit to be claimed as total time seen. Practices will also want to check with payers, and check with your practice management and EMR system to be sure that they are prepared to accommodate the 2021 changes.
It is also important to note that practices will need to accommodate for CPT Code 99201 as it will be eliminated as part of this revision. While MicroMD is on top of the changes, we urge you to check the AMA and CMS for updates in regards to the new E/M codes.
Please tune into our December’s Lunch and Learn, presented by the MicroMD Training team, where we will review and discuss these changes. We hope that this training session will help make you feel fully prepared for the implementation in January 2021.
