Do most practices bill more level 3 E/M codes than level 4 and level 5 codes? How about the lower-level codes? You got your first look at how some of your peers stack up in this issue's Benchmark of the Week feature, which compared the ratio of low-level E/M codes to level 3 codes billed and the ratio of high-level codes to level 3 codes billed.
The level 3 E/M visit is the single most commonly billed Medicare service, but practices vary widely in how many low and high-level E/Ms they bill in addition to their level 3s. The Benchmark is limited to 10 states, five of which bill the greatest amount of high-level codes relative to level 3s, and five of which bill the least.
Get the full story: Now you can check out the ratios of every single state and territory in the U.S. with our complete table, titled "E/M visit levels by state or territory, 2008." You can download this table as a PDF file by visiting the Part B News Library and clicking the Hot Documents tab on the left-side menu.
TIP: This file also shows the raw utilization data for each E/M level, so you can see the actual number of claims submitted to Medicare in 2008, the latest year for which CMS data is available.