The third element of MDM: risk of complications and/or morbidity or mortality of patient management at the encounter

Coding for E/M services

• There are three elements in medical decision-making and this article describes the third, the risk of complications and/or morbidity or mortality related to patient management
• When selecting a level of service based on medical decision-making two of the three elements are required
• CPT^® has developed definitions for many of the components in the MDM chart and this article describes the definitions and rules related to morbidity and mortality.