Evolving Telehealth and its Impact on Medical Coding and Billing
The rise of telehealth continues to reshape healthcare delivery, bringing significant changes to medical coding and billing practices in 2025.
What is Telehealth?
Telehealth allows you to receive healthcare services without physically being in the same location as your healthcare provider. This can happen through video calls on your computer or phone, secure messaging, or remote monitoring devices.
This image depicts a telehealth consultation, showing a patient interacting with a healthcare professional on a laptop.
The Permanent Shift to Telehealth
Telehealth has transitioned from a temporary solution to a permanent fixture in healthcare delivery, significantly impacting medical coding and billing practices.
The 2025 coding updates reflect this shift with the introduction of specific CPT codes to accurately bill for various telehealth modalities, including audio-only and video consultations. However, this evolution brings complexities, as billing rules for telehealth services can vary significantly between payers and across different jurisdictions, requiring meticulous attention to compliance. Accurate and detailed documentation, including the type of modality used, the duration of the encounter, and patient consent, has become paramount to support telehealth claims and avoid denials.
The ongoing integration of telehealth into mainstream care necessitates continuous adaptation and education for medical coding professionals, to navigate it effectively. As telehealth becomes further ingrained in healthcare delivery, the expertise of skilled medical coders and billers will be crucial, ensuring both provider reimbursement and compliance are maintained.
Resources:
American Medical Association (AMA): Provides resources on CPT coding, including telehealth. Their article on new telehealth codes for 2025 is available at [https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/cpt/how-ama-meets-need-new-telehealth-cpt-codes].
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM): Offers a summary of new 2025 telehealth CPT codes [https://www.smfm.org/news/new-2025-telehealth-cpt-codes].
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP): Provides guidance on coding for telehealth, audio-only, and virtual visits [https://www.aafp.org/family-physici...-telehealth-audio-virtual-digital-visits.html].
The rise of telehealth continues to reshape healthcare delivery, bringing significant changes to medical coding and billing practices in 2025.
What is Telehealth?
Telehealth allows you to receive healthcare services without physically being in the same location as your healthcare provider. This can happen through video calls on your computer or phone, secure messaging, or remote monitoring devices.
This image depicts a telehealth consultation, showing a patient interacting with a healthcare professional on a laptop.
The Permanent Shift to Telehealth
Telehealth has transitioned from a temporary solution to a permanent fixture in healthcare delivery, significantly impacting medical coding and billing practices.
The 2025 coding updates reflect this shift with the introduction of specific CPT codes to accurately bill for various telehealth modalities, including audio-only and video consultations. However, this evolution brings complexities, as billing rules for telehealth services can vary significantly between payers and across different jurisdictions, requiring meticulous attention to compliance. Accurate and detailed documentation, including the type of modality used, the duration of the encounter, and patient consent, has become paramount to support telehealth claims and avoid denials.
The ongoing integration of telehealth into mainstream care necessitates continuous adaptation and education for medical coding professionals, to navigate it effectively. As telehealth becomes further ingrained in healthcare delivery, the expertise of skilled medical coders and billers will be crucial, ensuring both provider reimbursement and compliance are maintained.
Resources:
American Medical Association (AMA): Provides resources on CPT coding, including telehealth. Their article on new telehealth codes for 2025 is available at [https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/cpt/how-ama-meets-need-new-telehealth-cpt-codes].
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM): Offers a summary of new 2025 telehealth CPT codes [https://www.smfm.org/news/new-2025-telehealth-cpt-codes].
American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP): Provides guidance on coding for telehealth, audio-only, and virtual visits [https://www.aafp.org/family-physici...-telehealth-audio-virtual-digital-visits.html].