April 3, 2020 Update to Medicare Telemedicine Notification
At 2:45 this afternoon, CMS notified all providers via Special Edition Message that CMS has made yet another change in the coding requirements for Telemedicine/Telehealth services. Pointed out below are the most critical changes, which pertain to place of service and modifier utilization. Here is the original April 1 Telemedicine Blog Post that contains the earlier CMS information to which we are now referring. Comparing the April 1 blog to this updated blog will make things less confusing to you.
04-03-20 Revised Special Edition Telemedicine Message from CMS
Building on prior action to expand reimbursement for telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries, CMS will now allow for more than 80 additional services to be furnished via telehealth. We will notify you when those services are clearly identified.
For professional claims for all telehealth services with dates of services on or after March 1, 2020, and for the duration of the Public Health Emergency (PHE), telehealth claims need to be billed with:
- Place of Service (POS) equal to what it would have been had the service been furnished in-person. This means you no longer use the 02 Place of Service.
- Modifier 95, indicating that the service rendered was actually performed via telehealth.
- As a reminder, CMS is not requiring the CR modifier on telehealth services.
For telemedicine claims already billed with the “02 Place of Service,” medical billers actively monitoring these claims should show them as having been received and in process. So, it appears this updated change will only impact claims from today forward. Your medical biller should notify you if they find any problems with older or new telemedicine claims.
ClaimCare remains on top of all things that impact practices and will continue to monitor these updates. You may have numerous resources sending information to you. Make sure your medical biller vets every piece of information that is sent to you to ensure its validity.
We certainly hope you and your staff are staying safe and healthy during this crisis. We encourage you to share with everyone, staff and patients alike, that they can keep updated on the news and recommendations on the government’s Coronavirus.com website.
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