New Evaluation Codes Officially Released by the AMA
On September 6, 2016, the American Medical Association (AMA) released the 2017 CPT codes used by providers to bill insurance carriers for services rendered, including outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy services. For physical and occupational therapy, there are significant changes regarding their current evaluation and reevaluation codes. Effective, January 1, 2017, 97001 (Physical therapy evaluation), 97002 (Physical therapy reevaluation), 97003 (Occupational therapy evaluation) and 97004 (Occupational therapy reevaluation) are being deleted and are being replaced with 3 new evaluation CPT codes per discipline and 1 new reevaluation CPT code per discipline.
In this article, I will provide the following information:
- The new evaluation and reevaluation codes for physical and occupational therapy
- A description of each code
- A guidance on the amount of time that would be spent performing each level of evaluation
- The 4 components associated with each evaluation that must be documented in the medical record in order to report the selected level of evaluation
- What insurance carriers will use the new evaluation and reevaluation codes
- Who would not be mandated to use the new evaluation and reevaluation codes
Physical therapy evaluations include the following components:
The content here is for members only log in here or sign up.
All material posted on our website is the intellectual property of Gawenda Seminars & Consulting, Inc. and can’t be used, reproduced, or posted as your own material without the prior written approval of Gawenda Seminars & Consulting, Inc.
This article is not intended to and does not serve as legal advice or as consultative services, but is for general information purposes only.
Check Our Past Webinars!
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Question on billing 97750. If you complete testing and bill 97750 for the testing AND test results change your current POC (ie. Goals are re-adjusted). I assume you need to create a new POC. If nothing changes on the POC you just document your findings in a written format. Is this correct?
A change in long term goals would require an updated plan of care.
Will the new eval and re-eval CPT codes be required by Medicare? Thanks
Yes!
Can interventions be billed with the new eval codes?
We will not know for sure for Medicare until CI Version 23.0 is released and this version covers January 1, 2017 – March 31, 2017. My opinion is yes since currently, CMS pays for treatment on the same day an evaluation is billed.
Is it safe to say that Functional Outcome measures (such as DASH, LEFS, Oswestry, etc) will now be required for all patients under HIPAA entities at evaluations/re-evaluations when using these codes?
The new evaluation codes do not mandate that you must use a functional outcome tool and/or test.
What is considered a “personal factor” when determining the complexity of a new evaluation?
Some examples are patients age, sex, social background, education level, and coping styles.
To help support the different levels of complexity, do you recommend using multiple ICD-10 diagnosis codes of other co-morbidities?
It is a yes and no answer. Nothing states the ICD-10 codes for co-morbidities have to be on the claim form, but the co-morbidities should be listed in the evaluation and a statement as to why you think that co-morbidity will impact the plan of care.
Does this apply to IP billing? If not, is an IP evaluation still 97001?
Watch for next weeks article where that question will get answered.
just wondering if we still use g-codes with new evaluation codes
Yes!
Thank you for this article. Have there been any definitions published regarding clinical presentation of “stable”, “evolving”, and “unstable”? And does the clinical presentation describe the therapy presentation only? or must it also include the medical presentation?
There is not a definition of clinical presentation of stable, evolving, etc.