Is there any reason shared medical appointments (SMA) should not be used to lower the cost of the face-to-face encounter that Medicare requires for obesity counseling?
Support Patients Find in Group Visits Enhances Outcomes: Shared Medical Appointments Can Boost Practices’ Productivity, Revenue, was published by the AAFP in 2010.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Brent Jaster, M.D., a Denver-based family physician and consultant who specializes in SMA implementation, said shared appointments can provide better access, outcomes and satisfaction for patients; lower health care costs for payers; and increase productivity and revenue for physicians.
“It’s a win, win, win for all parties,” he said.
Jaster said reimbursement is not a problem if a physician documents the individual care provided to each patient, and codes and bills accordingly.
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What do you think?
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You can find AAFP’s guidance on Coding for Shared Medical Appointments here: http://www.familydocs.org/files/AAFP_Coding_for_Group_Visits.pdf
SMAs for obesity counseling under G0447 will likely be scheduled differently from traditional SMAs. I say this because of the (up to) 20 visits called for in the recent Medicare decision. Perhaps, PCPs will schedule ‘classes’ that begin each month.
If you are doing this already…please chime in.