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Benchmark of the Week
11/02/2026
The trend in E/M office visit (99202-99215) reporting is perhaps best exemplified in the contrasting fall-and-rise of Level 3 and Level 5 established office visit codes: while total claims for 99213 were down 29% in a recent five-year stretch, those for 99215 increased by the same percentage.
10/26/2026
Providers doubled their use of virtual check-ins after CPT code 98016 (Established patient brief communication technology-based service with 5-10 minutes of medical discussion) replaced HCPCS code G2012 on Jan. 1, 2025.
10/19/2026
Care management services under Medicare, including transitional care management (TCM) codes 99495-99496, chronic care management (CCM) codes 99437, 99439, 99487, 99489, 99490 and 99491, and principal care management (PCM) codes 99424-99427, bounced back in 2024 after a COVID-era malaise (PBN 10/27/25). New 2025 Medicare utilization numbers show that the trend is still up and that denials have stabilized.
10/12/2026
Practices that frequently report claims with modifier 25 could be on the short end of a massive redistribution of professional fees in CY 2027. In the balance hangs nearly $900 million in payments, according to analysis from Jiro Health.
10/05/2026
Take a look back: The 2025 CPT code set included 62 new E/M, surgical, radiology and medicine codes. Part B News analysis of the most recent Medicare Part B claims data reveals the top services that went into effect Jan. 1, 2025.
09/28/2026
The newly published Medicare utilization numbers reflecting CY 2025 show that the COVID slump appears to be in the distance, but the utilization of even some popular services has fluctuated wildly.
09/21/2026
Eleven specialties reported the visit-complexity add-on code G2211 more than 1 million times apiece in 2025, with total claims topping 45 million and payments nearing $455 million, both figures up significantly from the previous year.
09/07/2026
Patients were almost three times more likely to receive a telehealth service at home than in another location in 2025. But Part B News analysis of data for Part B claims performed in places of service 02 (Telehealth provided other than in patient’s home), with 5.9 million claims, and 10 (Telehealth provided in patient’s home), with 17.3 million claims, revealed denial rates that almost match: 14% and 15%, respectively.
08/31/2026
While the growth in numbers and earning power of nurse practitioners (NP) and physician associates (PA) is impressive, perhaps their most important advance is in state laws allowing them to practice with limited and even no physician oversight (see related story, p 3).
08/24/2026
Deciding whether to use modifier 50 (Bilateral procedure) or modifiers LT/RT (Left side/right side) requires a little forethought and sometimes homework. Still, in 2024, the most recent year of available Medicare figures, it appears providers didn’t do too badly — though some codes proved more of a challenge.

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