Effective January 1, 2021, changes made to key elements of the E/M office or other outpatient visits and Prolonged Services. According to American Medical Association (AMA) changes include:

• Eliminating history and physical exam as elements for code selection
• Allowing physicians to choose whether their documentation is based on
  Medical Decision Making (MDM) or total time
• Modifying MDM criteria to move away from simply adding up tasks to focus
  on tasks that affect the management of a patient’s condition
• Elimination of new patient-level one (99201)
• Billing based on total time spent
  • Total time includes both face-to-face and non-face-to-face time on the
    date of the encounter
  • No longer requires to be dominated by counseling and/or coordination
    of care
• New Prolonged services in 15 minutes increments

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