Codes for smoking and tobacco cessation counseling are changing

As part of its quarterly update to the Medicare physician fee schedule database, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is changing the way you report smoking and tobacco cessation counseling to Medicare.

Effective for services on or after Oct. 1, CMS will no longer consider valid for Medicare purposes CPT codes G0436 (Smoking and tobacco cessation counseling visit for the asymptomatic patient; intermediate, greater than 3 minutes, up to 10 minutes) and G0437 (Smoking and tobacco cessation counseling visit for the asymptomatic patient; intensive, greater than 10 minutes).

CMS has advised its Medicare contractors to replace codes G0436 and G0437 with CPT codes 99406 (Smoking and tobacco use cessation counseling visit; intermediate, greater than 3 minutes up to 10 minutes) and 99407 (Smoking and tobacco use cessation counseling visit; intensive, greater than 10 minutes). Additional information on Medicare coverage of such counseling is discussed in Section 210.4.1 of the Medicare National Coverage Determination Manual.

– Kent Moore, Senior Strategist for Physician Payment for the American Academy of Family Physicians