405.2463—What constitutes a visit.
(a) Visit—
(1) General.
For rural health clinics, a visit is a face-to-face encounter between a clinic or center patient and a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, visiting nurse, clinical psychologist, or clinical social worker.
(B)
A face-to-face encounter between a patient and a qualified provider of medical nutrition therapy services as defined in part 410, subpart G of this chapter; or a qualified provider of outpatient diabetes self-management training services as defined in part 410, subpart H of this chapter.
(2) Medical visit.
A medical visit is a face-to-face encounter between a clinic or center patient and a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, or a visiting nurse; and for FQHCs only, a medical visit also includes a separately billable medical nutrition therapy visit or a diabetes outpatient self-management training visit.
(3) Other health visit.
An other health visit is a face-to-face encounter between a clinic or center patient and a clinical psychologist, clinical social worker, or other health professional for mental health services.
(b) Encounters.
Encounters with more than one health professional and multiple encounters with the same health professional that take place on the same day and at a single location constitute a single visit, except when one of the following conditions exist:
(1)
After the first encounter, the patient suffers illness or injury requiring additional diagnosis or treatment.
(2)
The patient has a medical visit and other health visit(s), as defined in paragraph (a) of this section.
(c) Payment.
Medicare pays for more than one visit per day when the conditions in paragraph (b) of this section are met or a separate visit under paragraph (a)(1)(ii)(B) of this section is made.
[71 FR 69782, Dec. 1, 2006]