Does telephone services covered by Medicare?

Physician Services General

Physician services are the professional services performed by a physician or physicians for a patient including diagnosis, therapy, surgery, consultation, and care plan oversight.

The physician must render the service for the service to be covered. (See Pub. 100-01, Medicare General Information, Eligibility, and Entitlement Manual, Chapter 5, §70, for definition of physician.) A service may be considered to be a physician’s service where the physician either examines the patient in person or is able to visualize some aspect of the patient’s condition without the interposition of a third person’s judgment. Direct visualization would be possible by means of x-rays, electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram tapes, tissue samples, etc.

For example, the interpretation by a physician of an actual electrocardiogram or electroencephalogram reading that has been transmitted via telephone (i.e., electronically rather than by means of a verbal description) is a covered service.

Professional services of the physician are covered if provided within the United States, and may be performed in a home, office, institution, or at the scene of an accident. A patient’s home, for this purpose, is anywhere the patient makes his or her residence, e.g., home for the aged, a nursing home, a relative’s home.

Telephone Services

Services by means of a telephone call between a physician and a beneficiary, or between a physician and a member of a beneficiary’s family, are covered under Medicare, but carriers may not make separate payment for these services under the program. The physician work resulting from telephone calls is considered to be an integral part of the prework and postwork of other physician services, and the fee schedule amount for the latter services already includes payment for the telephone calls. See §270 of this manual for coverage of telehealth services.