E/M Medical Coding Changes
Effective January 1, 2021, CMS is aligning evaluation and management coding with changes adopted by the American Medical Association (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel for office/ outpatient E/M visits.
- Retains 5 levels of coding for established patients, reduces the number of levels to 4 for office/outpatient E/M visits for new patients, and revises the code definitions
- Revises the times and medical decision-making process for all of the codes, and requires the performance of history and exam only as medically appropriate
- Allows clinicians to choose the E/M visit level based on either medical decision making or time
