The Library

All Guides

Six collections holding 31 guides (17 chapters and 14 direct answer pages), in reading order. New here? Start with Foundations, then The Office Visit. Every guide opens with the bottom line and ends with the tool that puts it to work.

The bottom line

Six collections, 31 guides in reading order; every guide opens with the bottom line and ends with the tool that puts it to work.

Foundations

How payment works, and how the current rules decide every visit level.

Why Coding Matters: Notes, Paycheck, and the 2021 E/M Rules

How a CPT code becomes wRVUs and pay, why defaulting to a level 3 quietly costs six figures, and how the 2021 rules let a shorter note code higher.

Medical Decision Making, Fully Decoded

All three MDM columns, problems, data, and risk, the two-of-three rule, choosing your level, and the mistakes auditors look for, in one guide.

The Office Visit

The moves that set the level, and the add-on codes most providers skip.

The Office Visit 1

Modifiers and Add-On Codes That Pay: 25, 59, G2211, Prolonged Services

When modifier 25, modifier 59, G2211, and prolonged services 99417 and G2212 apply, what the note must show, and what each is worth.

The Office Visit 2

Coding by Time and Preventive Visits with Same-Day E/M

When total time beats MDM, how to document it, and how to code a preventive visit plus a same-day problem E/M with modifier 25 so both claims hold up.

The Office Visit 3

Consultation Codes: Who Still Uses Them, When, and What Medicare Does Instead

Many commercial payers still recognize consultation codes, often at higher values; policies vary, so verify the payer. Medicare wants new or established codes instead.

Prevention, Compliance, and Practice Rules

Wellness visits, telehealth, audit-proof documentation, and who codes under whom.

Who Bills What: Incident-To and Advanced Practice Providers

The 85 percent rule, the four incident-to requirements, the new-problem trap, hospital and scope-of-practice limits, and the documentation that holds up.

Medicare Annual Wellness Visits: AWV Codes and the Same-Day E/M

What G0438 and G0439 require, how the AWV differs from G0402 and a physical, and how to code a same-day problem E/M with Modifier 25 and G2211.

Documentation as Armor: Compliant Notes, Comorbidities, and Templates

What auditors read for, the comorbidities and POA status physicians forget to document, and the templates and AI tools that make good notes automatic.

Counseling and Telehealth: The Add-Ons and Rules Most Clinics Miss

Tobacco, obesity, and alcohol counseling codes you already earn, plus the telehealth code sets, modifiers, and place-of-service rules that decide whether a virtual visit pays.

Specialty Playbooks

The code families that run each field.

Specialty Playbooks 1

Orthopaedic, Fracture, and Sports Medicine Coding

Global period carve-outs, the 90-day fracture care package and modifier 57, injection and ultrasound guidance codes, and how to code sports physicals.

Specialty Playbooks 2

The 25 Codes That Pay Primary Care

Twenty five codes generate most of primary care wRVUs. Know their values cold.

Specialty Playbooks 3

Emergency Medicine Coding: Levels, Critical Care, and the 2023 Reset

ED levels run on MDM alone, time never applies, and critical care is its own better paying lane.

Specialty Playbooks 4

Behavioral Health Coding: Therapy Time, E/M Add-Ons, and the Two-Service Visit

Prescribers can code an E/M and a therapy add-on in the same visit when the time is separated.

Specialty Playbooks 5

Hospitalist Coding: Admissions, Subsequent Visits, and the 2023 Observation Merger

The 2023 merger folded observation into inpatient codes. The admission day and the discharge rules carry the money.

Specialty Playbooks 6

Surgical Coding: The Global Package and Its Modifiers

What the global surgical package already pays for, and the modifiers (57, 25, 24, 58, 78, 79, 62, 80, 22) that carve out the work that still gets paid.

Frequently Asked Coding Questions

One question per page, answered in the first paragraph, with the documentation that holds up.

99213 vs 99214: What Actually Separates Them

The two of three rule, the three everyday level 4 patterns, and the time thresholds.

G2211 Documentation Requirements

The longitudinal relationship rule, the modifier 25 exclusion and its wellness visit exception, and the one sentence attestation.

Modifier 25 With a Joint Injection

When an office visit is also payable on an injection day, and what never counts.

Modifier 57 for Fracture Care

The decision for surgery rule, why closed treatment counts as major, and 57 versus 25.

Can CPT 29877 Be Coded With 29881?

Why chondroplasty bundles into meniscectomy, and the Medicare G0289 exception.

Can CPT 29826 Be Coded With 29827?

Yes, as an add-on, when the acromioplasty work is documented; here is the language.

G0438 vs G0439: Which Medicare Wellness Code?

The initial wellness visit is once per lifetime; the timing rules that cause denials.

Is CPT 99241 Still a Valid Code?

No. It was deleted in 2023. What replaced it, and what Medicare pays instead.

Hospital IP/OBS E/M Levels, by MDM or Time

Every initial, subsequent, and same date code with its MDM tier, time, and wRVU.

Telehealth Codes 98000 to 98016: Who Pays What

Medicare pays only 98016; the office codes carry Medicare telehealth. The full map.

What CPT Code Is a Sports Physical?

No dedicated code exists; the preventive families with Z02.5, and the coverage reality.

G0402: The Welcome to Medicare Visit

Once per lifetime, first 12 months of Part B only, and it blocks G0438 for a year.

CPT 27829: Syndesmosis Fixation, Coded Right

One code for screws or suture button, and the note that earns it beside a fibula ORIF.

CPT 99406 and 99407: Smoking Cessation Counseling

More than 3 minutes, documented as an exact number; the classic performed but unpaid code.

Your wRVUs and Productivity

Find the gap, track it, close it.

Your wRVUs and Productivity 1

Finding and Closing Your Own Coding Gap

The research on undercoding, where the gaps are most common, and how to find your own with a simple self-audit and a personal wRVU dashboard.

Your wRVUs and Productivity 2

References and Further Reading

The primary sources behind this site, worth bookmarking.