Effective Sept. 8, 2020, the American Medical Association (AMA) added Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code 99072, Additional supplies, materials, and clinical staff time over and above those usually included in an office visit or other non-facility service(s), when performed during a Public Health Emergency as defined by law, due to respiratory-transmitted infectious disease. Code 99072 is used to report the additional practice expenses necessary in an office visit or other non-facility setting to mitigate the transmission of the respiratory disease for which the Public Health Emergency (PHE) was declared. These include, but are not limited to, additional supplies, such as face masks and cleaning supplies, as well as clinical staff time for activities such as pre-visit instructions and office arrival symptom checks that support the safe provision of evaluation, treatment or procedural services during the respiratory infection-focused PHE.
When reporting 99072, report only once per in-person patient encounter per day, per provider identification number, regardless of the number of services rendered at that encounter. Code 99072 may be reported during a PHE when the additional clinical staff duties as described are performed by the physician or other qualified health care professional in lieu of clinical staff.
Additionally, the AMA approved CPT code 86413, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) antibody, quantitative, in response to the development of laboratory tests that provide quantitative measurements of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
Per the standard early release delivery process for CPT codes, note that the code descriptor will need to be manually uploaded into electronic health record systems. In addition to the long descriptor, codes 86413 and 99072 have short and medium descriptors that can be accessed on the AMA website.
For detailed information on reporting codes 99072 and 86413, please refer to the AMA CPT Assistant article.