CMS releases E/M frequency data annually. A physician self-elects their specialty designation when enrolling with Medicare. Infectious disease, pulmonary medicine and cardiology are all specialties with active inpatient services, and of course, busy office services. That’s why I’ve elected to show them together.
The data below is from 2020, released in late 2021.
Office services
| New OV | Infectious Disease | Pulmonary | Cardiology |
| 99201 | 0.41% | 0.04% | 0.11% |
| 99202 | 2.17% | 0.87% | 1.31% |
| 99203 | 23.84% | 14.37% | 14.60% |
| 99204 | 52.56% | 61.49% | 65.44% |
| 99205 | 21.01% | 23.23% | 18.54% |
Levels 99203—99205 combined range from 98% for ID, to 99% for pulmonary medicine and 99% for cardiology. But, ID bills a few more 99203 visits that either pulmonary or cardiology. Only a small fraction of new patient visits are billed as level one or two visits, which is understandable. This data is prior to 99201 being deleted from the CPT book.
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