This post discusses Medicare changes at the START of the PHE.  It is for HISTORICAL REFERENCE ONLY

• CMS’s 4/30/2020 rule states that practices could bill 99211 for new or established patients during the public health emergency for COVID-19 specimen collection
• CPT had previously recommended this
• The new HCPCS codes (G2023, G2024) for COVID-19 specimen collection are for use by independent laboratories, not medical practices
• The PHE ended March 2023

The AMA developed and distributed a document that includes many scenarios for collecting COVID-19 specimens, including using 99211, a nurse visit, for collecting a specimen on a day when the patient did not have an in-person visit or telehealth visit. I disagreed with that at the time. I know that specimen collection code 99000 is not paid by most payers, and I understand that collecting this specimen costs practices significantly. But, I didn’t see that it followed coding rules. But, CMS weighed in on April 30, 2020, in their Interim Final Rule with comment (IFC).