A little-noticed part of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) annual proposed Physician Fee Schedule rule (Federal Register) for Medicare payments is that CMS on its own, without any provider requests (surprisingly), has proffered three new reimbursement codes, all centered on opioid use treatment:

HCPCS code GYYY1: Office-based treatment for opioid use disorder, including development of the treatment plan, care coordination, individual therapy and group therapy and counseling; at least 70 minutes in the first calendar month.

HCPCS code GYYY2: Office-based treatment for opioid use disorder, including care coordination, individual therapy and group therapy and counseling; at least 60 minutes in a subsequent calendar month.

HCPCS code GYYY3: Office-based treatment for opioid use disorder, including care coordination, individual therapy and group therapy and counseling; each additional 30 minutes beyond the first 120 minutes (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure).

These are classified as Category 1 as they are similar to services already offered under telehealth, so are likely to go into effect on 1 January.

This adds to telehealth services under the SUPPORT Act that removed the geographic limitations for telehealth services furnished to individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder (SUD). effective 1 July.

Most telehealth services to beneficiaries (Medicare-speak for patients) eligible for reimbursement are limited to qualifying rural areas or one of eight types of qualifying sites and the practitioners are included in one of ten categories of distant site practitioners eligible to furnish and receive Medicare payment for telehealth services. Services also have to be through real-time audio/video and the code (Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)/Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCs) are included under Medicare.

Comments on the Rule are accepted through 5pm on 27 September. National Law Review has the details for filing comments here.