Illustration: Counting activities for time-based E/M office visit coding

To code office/outpatient visits based on time, add the minutes a physician or qualified healthcare professional spends on a variety of activities, including the time it takes them to update the patient’s medical record. To accurately document and code office visits with time, it’s important to understand the activities that count toward time. Because it is unlikely that every visit will include every activity, providers may overlook activities that they rarely perform.

The following illustration will help providers not miss out on countable activities.

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