Part B Update: Despite CPT® Revision, Medicare Won’t Update ‘New Patient’ E/M Rules for 2012

Plus: Claims reprocessing has completed, so make sure your claims have been corrected.

As many veteran ophthalmology coders are aware, just because CPT® makes a change, you aren't guaranteed to see Medicare follow suit. That's the case with the latest new vs. established patient definition that CPT® 2012 published, which won't have much impact on Part B claims, CMS reps said during a Jan. 24 Open Door Forum.

Background: CPT® 2012 states, A new patient is one who has not received any professional services from the physician or another physician of the exact same specialty and subspecialty who belongs to the same group [...]

- Published on 2012-02-01