Continuum : lifelong learning in neurology
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Continuum (Minneap Minn) · Jun 2020
Coding in the World of COVID-19: Non-Face-to-Face Evaluation and Management Care.
Almost all medical care in the United States is delivered with the provider and patient in immediate proximity; this model is referred to as face-to-face care. Medical services can be apportioned as procedural care (eg, surgery, radiology, or laboratory testing and others) or cognitive care, also known as Evaluation and Management (E/M) services, in which the provider formulates an assessment and plan after obtaining information from the patient's history, examination, and diagnostic tests. Providing a medical opinion and plan using the telephone as the technology that links the provider and the patient is an example of a non-face-to-face E/M service. ⋯ After the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, the US Department of Health & Human Services issued a public health emergency and declared a Section 1135 Waiver that lifted many of the administrative constraints. With the need for near-absolute social distancing, this perfect storm has resulted in the immediate adoption of telemedicine, at least for the duration of the pandemic, for cognitive care to be delivered using communication technologies that are already in place. This article discusses the most common forms of non-face-to-face E/M care and the proper coding elements necessary to provide these services.