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What is the originating site?

Originating site: A site where a patient is located at the time health care services are provided via a telecommunications system or where the asynchronous store and forward service originates. (

What is a telemedicine originating site?

Originating site is defined by CMS as where the patient and/or the patient’s physician is located during the telehealth encounter or consult. Other common names for this term include spoke site, patient site, remote site, and rural site.

What is an originating site fee?

2. Facility fee for originating site (See B, above, for definition of originating site.) The originating site facility fee is a Part B payment. The contractor pays it outside of the current fee schedule or other payment methodologies (e.g., FIs make payment in addition to the DRG, or OPPS).

What is telehealth originating facility fee?

Healthcare Common Procedural Coding System (HCPCS) code Q3014, Telehealth originating site facility fee, is used to bill for services incurred at the site where the patient is located during the telehealth service.

Can you bill prolonged services with telehealth?

If the time of visit exceeds the time of the highest level of service (99205 and 99215), prolonged service codes can be used to report these exceptional circumstances. Of course, you will need to report appropriate place-of-service codes and modifiers to indicate that the visit was a telehealth encounter.

How do I submit a claim to telehealth?

Submit professional telehealth service claims using the appropriate CPT or HCPCS code. If you performed telehealth services through an asynchronous telecommunications system, add the telehealth GQ modifier with the professional service CPT or HCPCS code (for example, 99201 GQ).

Can the originating site fee be submitted by a distant site provider?

The submission of the originating site fee by the distant site provider will be denied, per the payment policy. Appropriate billing of Q3014: Patient visits their PCP’s office in Everett and the PCP helps to initiate a telehealth appointment with a specialist located in Seattle.

What is an originating site?

Originating site: A site where a patient is located at the time health care services are provided via a telecommunications system or where the asynchronous store and forward service originates. (Business and Professions Code section 2290.5 (a) (4))

How to decipher the originating site geographical restrictions?

Here’s how to decipher the originating site geographical restrictions. Think, ‘Telehealth Originating Site = Patient Location’ The originating site is where the beneficiary (patient) is physically located during the visit.

Do I need both a telehealth originating and a distant site?

Include both a telehealth originating site and a distant site on your claims. There are a select few instances when you don’t need both, but in most cases you do. Communicate live. Medicare only covers patient telehealth services that are performed via real-time video conferencing with both audio and video communications.