New patient E/M codes a hard lift for many specialties, psychiatry especially

Article Overview

This article reviews specialty-level billing patterns for new patient office evaluation and management services using Medicare claims data. It focuses on how often different specialties billed these visits, how denial rates varied across codes and specialties, and why the planned elimination of the lowest-level new patient office code matters for providers and coders. The discussion is especially relevant to practices trying to benchmark their claims performance, understand specialty-specific billing limitations, and anticipate changes in E/M reporting.