A SMALL CASE. A CLEARER DECISION.
Put the coding rule to work.
Five short, fictional office E/M exercises. Choose an answer, check the reasoning and follow the source.
Educational beta. Independent clinician review has not yet been completed. No CME credit is offered.
Sources checkedStart anywhere. Each case isolates one decision so you can see which facts matter. Medicare examples are labeled. These exercises accept no patient information and do not submit answers to an account.
Choose a case
Time selection
A 34-minute office visit
Choose a time-based level for an established patient using an explicit eligible total.
Try the case ↗Eligible time
Which minutes belong in the total?
Separate eligible encounter-day physician work from staff work and next-day documentation.
Try the case ↗Medical decision making
Two elements point to the same level
Combine three already-classified MDM elements without assuming that all three must match.
Try the case ↗Medicare patient type
New to you, established to the practice
Apply the Medicare patient-type rule to a return visit within the same group and specialty.
Try the case ↗Medicare documentation
A long note with a missing decision
Recognize why documentation length alone cannot establish an E/M level.
Try the case ↗
Bring the rule back to your workflow
Use the E/M guide for structured practice, or open a source-linked article for more context. Real coding decisions still need the complete record and the applicable payer rules.