AMA - Reimagining E/M Office Visits for 2021 and Beyond
2020 Evaluation and Management Symposium: Virtual Conference
Presented Friday, September 25, 2020
Summary
The CPT® E/M office visit codes (99201-99215) are the most commonly billed codes in medicine, representing nearly a quarter of Medicare Part B spend annually. Over the past year, the AMA worked with numerous stakeholders, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), commercial payers and medical specialty societies, to achieve the first overhaul of E/M office visit documentation and coding in more than 25 years. This new approach is a significant step towards modernizing patient care in the office that both reduces administrative burden for the clinicians and health care providers, as well as creates incentives to provide better patient care.
Because these landmark revisions will affect nearly every specialty, the AMA led a consensus-driven, open and transparent workgroup process that engaged participants with diverse medical specialty backgrounds. As the health care ecosystem prepares for deployment of these changes on Jan. 1, 2021, the AMA continues to lead the charge on education and implementation so that the positive effects can be felt immediately.
During this session, attendees will gain insight into the collaborative process behind the reimagined approach to office visits, an overview of the E/M office visit revisions, and the anticipated impact this first wave of revisions will have on other areas of E/M into the future.
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Presenter
Zach Hochstetler is the director of CPT Editorial and Regulatory Affairs in the American Medical Association’s Health Solutions unit. Zach’s work focuses on several key areas, including: leading and setting strategic direction for the CPT Editorial Panel and directing the communication of health care policies, through identification and resolution of national payment and reporting problems. He is also the secretary of the CPT Editorial Panel, ensuring that the process remains open and transparent.
Zach has over 10 years of experience working on physician payment and policy issues. He spent seven years working in the Physician Payment and Policy unit of the American Medical Association, primarily tasked with managing the data acquisition and maintenance processes for the AMA RUC.