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General Surgery Coding Alert

General Coding:

‘The Physician Talked to the Patient’ Is Not Enough for Modifier 25

Published on Thu Aug 20, 2026

Question: An established patient presents for a diagnostic procedure. Before the procedure begins, the physician briefly discusses the patient’s blood pressure and asks whether the patient has taken a prescribed medication, which I was going to report with 99213. Can I code this as a separate evaluation and management (E/M) service with modifier 25 appended, in addition to the procedure? [...]
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