AAFP calls on CMS for telephone, online, and care plan payments

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is renewing its call for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to pay physicians for telephone evaluations, care plan oversight services, and online evaluations.

Specifically, AAFP wants CMS, under the Medicare physician fee schedule, to dial in seven new service codes using established relative value units when provided by primary care physicians as an interim strategy until this work is recognized under a care management fee.

These services and codes include:

Telephone evaluation and management services (CPT codes 99441-99443)

Collection and interpretation of physiologic data (CPT codes 99091)

Domiciliary, rest home, or home care plan oversight services (CPT codes 99339-99340)

Anticoagulant management (CPT codes 99363-99364)

Medical team conferences (CPT codes 99366-99367)

Care plan oversight services (CPT codes 99374-99380)

In addition, AAFP is asking CMS to pay for online evaluation and management service (CPT code 99444) when the service is provided by primary care physicians.

“The existing E/M codes do not adequately reflect the scope of our responsibilities and the complexity of the care that we provide in the office and other outpatient settings,” counters Glen Stream, MD, MBI, board chair of AAFP. “Primary care E/M services should be valued higher than E/M services provided by other specialists.”