CMS released final rules for the latest physician feel schedule for calendar year 2016, and among the rules are two new telemedicine codes.
The two new codes in the final rules are:
CPT codes 99356 and 99357: These codes refer to prolonged service in the inpatient or observation setting. They may only be billed with hospital inpatient and skilled nursing facility evaluation and management codes that are already on the list of Medicare telehealth services. Thus, they are only reportable with codes with a limit of one subsequent hospital visit every three days via telehealth and one subsequent nursing facility visit every 30 days.
CPT codes 90963-90966: These codes are for patients receiving at-home dialysis care for end-stage renal disease. While a patient's home is not an authorized originating site for telehealth, the codes would still be applicable if the clinical examination of the catheter access site is conducted in an in-person visit. Then, telehealth may be used for subsequent visits.
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