Streaming a family update via Zoom? Don’t bill as an office visit

Article Overview

This article addresses a Medicare billing question involving a physician’s Zoom conversation with a patient’s adult daughter when the patient was not present. It explains the general treatment of family-member conversations under office-visit E/M billing, including how telehealth-era flexibilities and newer E/M guidelines relate to time-based and medical-decision-making approaches. The article is aimed at coders, billers, and clinicians who need to understand when remote communication may or may not support an office visit.