Watch Out for 3 Telephone Service Coding Pitfalls

Posted on 11. Oct, 2009 by .

Caution: You may need to incorporate the call into an in-office E/M service.

If you’re reporting services your physician provides over the phone, but you’re not getting paid, the reason might be one of two things — you’re not following the coding rules surrounding the codes or your payer just isn’t paying for those services. Check out these top three denial reasons to ensure that you’re not leaving money on the table by misusing these codes.

1. Check With Each Payer on Reimbursement Policy

CPT offers six codes for you to use to report telephone services: 98966-98968 (Telephone assessment and management service provided by a qualified nonphysician health care professional …) and 99441-99443 (Telephone evaluation and management service provided by a physician …). As evident in the code descriptors, you will choose the proper code to report based on the time a practitioner spends on the telephone with the patient.

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