Eligible time · CASE 2 OF 5
Which minutes belong in the total?
Separate eligible encounter-day physician work from staff work and next-day documentation.
Educational beta. Independent clinician review has not yet been completed. No CME credit is offered.
Sources checkedTHE FICTIONAL CASE
For an established-patient office visit, a physician spends 24 eligible minutes on the encounter date. A medical assistant separately spends 12 minutes rooming the patient. The physician spends another 8 minutes documenting the next day. None of the 24 minutes involves a separately reported service.
Read the answer and explanation without the quiz
24 minutes
Count 24 minutes. Exclude the assistant's 12 minutes and the 8 minutes on the following day. Those 24 minutes support 99213 by time, assuming the service otherwise qualifies. Do not treat the combined team's elapsed work as physician time.
Check the source
- AAFP: E/M coding questions ↗
Total time and MDM questions
- AAFP: E/M time and MDM levels ↗
Office and outpatient table
The source check supports the rule used in this fictional exercise. It is not independent professional certification. Actual claims require the complete documentation and current payer requirements.