Statement attributed to:
Patrice A. Harris, M.D., M.A.
President, American Medical Association
“Physicians spend a huge amount of time meeting burdensome documentation requirements during patient interactions, which takes time away from patients and contributes significantly to physician burnout and professional dissatisfaction. Our aim is to reduce this burden and provide physicians more time with patients, not paperwork.
“CMS Administrator Verma made it a priority to reduce documentation of evaluation and management (E/M) office visit services as part of her Patients Over Paperwork initiative. Over the past year, the AMA and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) worked together to achieve the first overhaul of E/M office visit documentation and coding in more than 25 years. This new approach is a significant step in reducing administrative burdens that get in the way of patient care.
“Now it’s time for vendors and payors to take the necessary next steps to align their systems with E/M office visit code changes by the time the revisions are deployed on January 1, 2021. In the coming months, the AMA will undertake an aggressive effort to ensure that EHR providers, coders, payors and other vendors implement simplified coding so physicians no longer labor under undue documentation complexity.
“The AMA urges the entire health care industry to implement the simplified approach to E/M office visit documentation and coding, and will continue to provide information and resources to help ease this transition.”
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Editor’s Note: The AMA offers the following resources and tools designed to help physician practices understand and apply the landmark revision to E/M coding and documentation for office visit serves.
- CPT evaluation and management background
- Educational module on CPT code revisions
- 10 tips to prepare your practice for E/M office visit changes
- Demystifying regulatory myths
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The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises and, driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care.
