Telemedicine in the time of COVID-19:

Due to coronavirus, after 3/6/2020, CMS will now allow for billing telemedicine visits for patients at home. Commercial payers have followed suit. There are 3 types of visits you can bill:

Telehealth visits: Live video chat with your new or established patients. The call can be initiated by you or by the patient. You can bill the office visit codes you are used to billing (99213, etc). You should add a GT modifier to each visit. For medicare, the correct location should be 02 Telemedicine; however, we will make this correction for you as necessary.
Virtual check in: A patient initiated contact to you in any way. Typically this would be the patient contacting you to find out if they should come in for a visit. You can bill a G2012 if the patient will not come in for a visit within the next 24 hours. Additionally, you can bill a G2010 if the patient sent you images or documentation to review, to determine if they need to come in. Note that you can also initiate contact with the patient, however, they must consent to being evaluated in this way.
E-Visit: Total time you spend managing a patient via the patient portal within a patient in a 7 day period.
1. Codes For Physicians:
  1. 99421: Online digital evaluation and management service, for an established patient, for up to 7 days, cumulative time during the 7 days; 5–10 minutes
  2. 99422: Online digital evaluation and management service, for an established patient, for up to 7 days cumulative time during the 7 days; 11– 20 minutes
  3. 99423: Online digital evaluation and management service, for an established patient, for up to 7 days, cumulative time during the 7 days; 21 or more minutes.
2. Code for non Physicians (for example – physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, clinical psychologists):
  1. G2061: Qualified non-physician healthcare professional online assessment and management, for an established patient, for up to seven days, cumulative time during the 7 days; 5–10 minutes
  2. G2062: Qualified non-physician healthcare professional online assessment and management service, for an established patient, for up to seven days, cumulative time during the 7 days; 11–20 minutes
  3. G2063: Qualified non-physician qualified healthcare professional assessment and management service, for an established patient, for up to seven days, cumulative time during the 7 days; 21 or more minutes.
You may have heard that you must have established relationships with the patients you manage via Virtual Check In or E-Visit; however, CMS will NOT audit for who actually initiated the communications during the coronavirus crisis. You may also have heard that you cannot provide services to patients at home; however, during the crisis, you will be allowed to provide services to patients at home.
We recommend having your staff establish the connection to the patient initially, and that they confirm patient billing information (name, address, insurance, guarantor), etc, before passing the patient to you.
Additional Information: