The AASM joined almost 170 organizations in signing on to a comment letter from the American Medical Association (AMA) in response to the Evaluation and Management (E/M) coding, reimbursement, and documentation guideline revisions proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The AASM agreed with the AMA in stating that the following three proposed revisions should go into effect immediately to reduce administrative burden:
- Changing the required documentation of the patient’s history to focus only on the interval history since the previous visit;
- Eliminating the requirement for physicians to re-document information that has already been documented in the patient’s record by practice staff or by the patient; and
- Removing the need to justify providing a home visit instead of an office visit.
The AASM also agreed with the AMA’s suggestion that CMS allow the medical community to assist with revising the E/M process through the formation of an E/M workgroup. This workgroup would be made up of health care professionals with experience in coding, reimbursement, and clinical expertise and would identify solutions to the current E/M coding and payment issues, providing solutions for implementation in the 2020 calendar year.
Get more information from the AASM about coding and reimbursement.
