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Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

  • 1.  Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-11-2026 09:20

    Dear AAACN Team,

    I am reaching out to seek clarification and guidance regarding best practices for nurse visits and appropriate charging for nursing work in the ambulatory care setting. I work for a hospital system in Madison Wisconsin that has both physician-based (billing) and hospital-based (billing) clinics. 

    Specifically, we are reviewing our current processes and would appreciate your insight on the following:

    ·       How does your organization define nurse visits and the documentation required for compliance and reimbursement purposes?

    ·       Recommended approaches for charging nursing services, including any applicable CPT codes or billing guidelines.

    ·       What are other organizations doing to bill for 99211 in nurse-led appointments?

    ·       How are organizations handling charges for patient educationnurse navigator services, and annual wellness visits?

    ·       If any organizations have developed guidelines to describe this work, I would greatly appreciate if you could share those resources.

    Your expertise and guidance would be invaluable as we work to maintain high standards of care and operational integrity. Please let me know if there are specific resources or contacts you recommend.

    Thank you for your time and support.

    Warm Regards,

    Bryony Kelleher, DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC

    RN Clinic Supervisor, Geriatrics

    5543 E Cheryl Pkwy, Fitchburg, WI 53711

    bkelleher@uwhealth.org



    ------------------------------
    Bryony Kelleher DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC
    UW Health

    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 08:24

    Unfortunately, I don't have any guidance to share, but I'm looking forward to hearing what others have to say! Billing and reimbursement for nursing services feels pretty complicated. 



    ------------------------------
    Ashley Martin, MPH, RN, BSN
    Clinical Education Specialist
    Lower Lights Christian Health Center
    Columbus, OH
    ashley.martin@llchc.org
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 12:48

    Good morning! 

    I ran into this exact question at our organization recently. We worked closely with our revenue cycle team & were able to develop a clear process around nurse visits, documentation expectations, and when/how 99211 can be used appropriately.

    I'm happy to share what we put together and the resources we used if that would be helpful.



    ------------------------------
    Bassem Fakhouri RN
    Nurse Manager
    Central Health
    Austin TX
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 12:54

    I'd love to see any of those resources, Bassem! Feel free to email them to me at ashley.martin@llchc.org. Thank you!



    ------------------------------
    Ashley Martin, MPH, RN, BSN
    Clinical Education Specialist
    Lower Lights Christian Health Center
    Columbus, OH
    ashley.martin@llchc.org
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 14:40

    Of course, happy to help! Just sent it your way



    ------------------------------
    Bassem Fakhouri RN
    Nurse Manager
    Central Health
    Austin TX
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 07:04
    I would love to see the standard work as well Bassim!

    Melissa Taylor, MSN, RN, AMB-BC, NE-BC

    Director of Ambulatory Nursing – Primary Care

    Elliot Medical Group

    Phone: 603-663-3503

    Email: mtaylor@elliot-hs.org

     

     

    This document contains information constituting records and/or testimony relating to activities of a quality assurance committee and is therefore protected from direct or indirect means of discovery, subpoena, or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding, pursuant to NH RSA 151:13-a and/or RSA 329:29-a.

     






  • 7.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 09:42

    I would appreciate seeing them. Thank you in advance.

    bkanten@yahoo.com



    ------------------------------
    Benjamin Kanten MSN MBA RN-BC NE-BC
    Bastrop TX
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 12:08

    Hi Bassem - would love to see what your team has put together. Please feel free to email me at samantha_colontuono@rush.edu

    Thank you!



    ------------------------------
    Samantha Colontuono
    Clinical Practice Consultant RN
    Rush Medical Group - Downtown/Metro Region
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 12:34
      |   view attached

    This sparked way more insight and discussion than I expected 😅 so I'm attaching the tipsheet here instead



    ------------------------------
    Bassem Fakhouri RN
    Nurse Manager
    Central Health
    Austin TX
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 10.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-15-2026 14:49

    That would be very helpful! Thank you for offering! 



    ------------------------------
    Bryony Kelleher DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC
    UW Health
    Cottage Grove WI
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 29 days ago

    Bassem,

    Would you mind emailing your resources at jennifer.backes@froedtert.com? I am new in my role as CNS of all ambulatory clinics and I believe this would be extremely helpful.

    Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 



    ------------------------------
    Jennifer Backes
    Clinical Nurse Specialist
    Wauwatosa WI
    414-805-2524
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 15:52
    I too would love to  hear what folx are doing for nursing billing. We are a large FQHC primary care system, with the goal to increase our nursing billing for chronic care management, diabetes care pathways, new patient intakes and other visits. Are others using provider attestation as well? We do use 99211 and I am wondering about AWV for nursing in combination with provider visits/clinical pharmacists visits to enhance the patient experience.


    Toni Kempner, BSN, MSN, RN, ACRN
    Director of Nursing 
    Integrated Clinical Services (ICS)
    Multnomah County Health Department
    619 NW 6th Avenue, 7th floor, Interoffice: B165/7
    Portland, OR  97209
    Cell: 503-969-6989

    For Scheduling and Administrative Support: Jodi Shaw at jodi.k.shaw@multco.us








  • 13.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 28 days ago

    Hi Toni--(and others on the thread identifying as FQHC nurses)--you should also join our FQHC community as we talk about these things specific to FQHCs--because. as was pointed out on this thread--we cannot bill AWVs as nurse visits--but only as provider visits--this is one example of an FQHC only rule. All other practices can do it with an RN and bill...

    Our clinic does 99211 as our state medicaid in CT does reimburse for these visits. Not every state reimburses--but it is important to look at those regs as there are MANY types of visits that can be done this way. We have a whole host of standing orders for chronic disease care, acute issues, etc. 

    Our system does somewhere between 28,000-32,000 nursing visits per year, depending on staffing, etc.

    LPNs/LVNs can only bill vaccine visits in our state and be paid given the lack of scope of practice to "assess." We use LPNs for in-visit provider support. RNs have their own schedules.

    Hope that helps--but maybe we can use one of our networking calls in the FQHC SIG for this topic!

    Hope to see you there!

    Mary

    Mary Blankson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN

    Chief Nursing Officer

    Community Health Center, Inc.

    675 Main Street,

    Middletown, CT, 06457

    Cell: (860)227-5432

    mary@chc1.com

    Executive Director

    National Institute for Medical Assistant Advancement (NIMAA)

    1525 N Raleigh Street

    Denver, CO 80204

    mary.blankson@nimaa.edu



    ------------------------------
    Mary Blankson DNP APRN FNP-C FAAN
    Community Health Center, Inc.
    Middletown CT
    (860) 227-5432
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 28 days ago

    How might I listen in on or participate in the network call - if that's possible, I would LOVE to hear more about the possibilities, as the 99211 code isn't really sufficient to cover some of the complex care we nurses provide. 

    Thank you, and I'm so glad we're discussing this.

    Ingrid 



    ------------------------------
    Ingrid Hawkinson
    RN, MSN, AMB-BC
    UCSF Otolaryngology
    San Francisco CA
    415-353-2148
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 28 days ago

    In communities, just join the FQHC SIG (special interest group)-there are other SIGs you can join as well-those are for sub-groups of AAACN nurses to connect!


    This message originates from Community Health Center, Inc.. The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential. If you are the intended recipient you must maintain this message in a secure and confidential manner. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of this message. Thank you.






  • 16.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 27 days ago
      |   view attached

    On January 21, Faith Jones spoke on From Intuition to Evidence: Building Sustainable Revenue Generating Nurse Led Models. This was a great presentation from Faith Jones!  Faith spoke about current (2026) coding, billing, and supervision associated with CMS Care Models. She also fielded questions concerning FQHC organization.   It would be a good listen to this group!  If you would want to hear the presentation or access the national average reimbursement rates for 2026, they are posted in our NSI Community! Please join! Faith also posted the Care Coordination Codes for 2026.  Faith is truly the expert of this subject matter!  

    • AAACN.org
    • Select "Communities"
    • Select "Nurse Sensitive Indicator SIG Forum"
    • Select "Library"
    • Select "NSI 1.21 Meeting recording and Transcript or use this link:

    NSI SIG 1.21.25 Recording & Transcription

    What an exciting time for nursing! We can  solidify our mark in Ambulatory Care Nursing!



    ------------------------------
    Annette
    Annette Hamlin, MSN, Ed., AMB-BC, RN
    Nursing Professional Development Specialist
    Ambulatory, Medical/Surgical Administration
    Akron Children's Hospital
    Akron, OH
    330 618 6357
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 17.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 27 days ago
    Dear Mary,
    Thank you so much and yes I will participate in the FQHC community and thank you for the clarity around the AWV not being in the swim lane for nursing. We are recently revamping our Incident To Billing guidelines so I appreciate the wisdom around this topic.

    Toni Kempner, BSN, MSN, RN, ACRN
    Director of Nursing 
    Integrated Clinical Services (ICS)
    Multnomah County Health Department
    619 NW 6th Avenue, 7th floor, Interoffice: B165/7
    Portland, OR  97209
    Cell: 503-969-6989

    For Scheduling and Administrative Support: Jodi Shaw at jodi.k.shaw@multco.us








  • 18.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-12-2026 19:54

    Great topic and relevant to some of the work we are doing right now in our clinics. Tacking onto this thread...With regard to the nurse visit itself, we are getting some pushback from providers asking if nurse visits can be done without a provider in office. As a rule, we have never allowed this in the past, but one of our Lead Physicians wants to see the regulations that require this, and I have not been able to find anything explicitly stating that they cannot complete without a provider. For context, we are located in Massachusetts. Provider-based billing site that provides primary care and OBGYN services. Many of our practices existed in the past as privately owned and now being part of a larger health system, our interpretation of risk is not always the same. Any insight or policies you can share are appreciated. Thanks!  



    ------------------------------
    Adrien Conklin
    Berkshire Health Systems
    Pine Plains NY
    ------------------------------



  • 19.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 10:40

    I shared the tip sheet with everyone who requested it. When we did our research, there wasn't a universal regulation that explicitly states a provider must always be physically in the office for a nurse visit to occur. That said, there are regulatory/billing/scope considerations that lead many practices to require provider presence in certain settings.

    Specifically for nurse visits, our revenue cycle team has advised that if there isn't a provider order (or appropriate supervising/covering provider or SDO to cover), payers may deny the visit since it's not billable under the nurse's credentials alone. Ultimately, this can vary by state and payer, and each organization ends up deciding its own approach based on risk tolerance, supervision requirements, and compliance interpretation



    ------------------------------
    Bassem Fakhouri RN
    Nurse Manager
    Central Health
    Austin TX
    ------------------------------



  • 20.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 10:33
      |   view attached

    Hello,

    We completed a project last year to look at Nurse Visits at FQHCs.  Please see the attached document for the details.



    ------------------------------
    Daniel Gillen MSN FNP-C
    Transformation Advisor
    Health Center Association of Nebraska
    Kansas City MO
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 21.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 13:47
      |   view attached

    Good Morning Bryony,

    I work for an FQHC in California and we are highly restricted here.  Our clinics finance department developed a billing policy for us which I have included for your review and I hope you find some of the information helpful to your particular setting.

    1.  How does your organization define nurse visits and the documentation required for compliance and reimbursement purposes?  Our (billable) nurse visits are defined as an in-person visit that occurs on a day where a patient does not see a clinician (NP, PA, MD).  We created a separate RN template where the nurses document a comprehensive assessment which meets the needed criteria.  We also check vital signs even at our educational appointments, even though we aren't necessarily doing a comprehensive assessment.  (refer to attached documents for billing criteria)

    ·    2.    Recommended approaches for charging nursing services, including any applicable CPT codes or billing guidelines.    We can put in an administrative code when providing series injections in addition to the 99211

    ·   3. ·   How are organizations handling charges for patient education, nurse navigator services, and annual wellness visits?  As an FQHC we cannot bill for the annual wellness visits.  The RN does see the patient and completes a majority of the work for the clinician but the billing is coded by the clinician not the RN. That's how we are required to manage those visits here. A different State or a non-FQHC might be allowed something different.  

    ·      Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about the resources I've included.



    ------------------------------
    Lori Roach BS MHA RN
    Vista Community Clinic
    Valley Center CA
    760-631-5000 ext 8004
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    VCCRN billing policy.pdf   654 KB 1 version


  • 22.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 19:07

    This is extremely helpful. Thank you so much for sharing! 



    ------------------------------
    Sherry Oliver RN
    Bixby OK
    ------------------------------



  • 23.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-15-2026 15:02

    Wow thank you-- This has been very helpful!



    ------------------------------
    Bryony Kelleher DNP, RN, AGCNS-BC
    UW Health
    Cottage Grove WI
    ------------------------------



  • 24.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-15-2026 15:19
      |   view attached

    Hello,

     

    Attached are also CMS codes and definitions/criteria  for use of various Care Management services. RN's provide incredible care in the realms of chronic disease management and transitions of care. The challenge has thus far been structural support for these RNs to focus only on those patients engaged with Care Management. In other words, if you are going to have nurses manage patients using these billing codes, than all patients who are seeing these nurses need to be engaged in Care Management.

     

    If the patient does not consent, then they can be managed by other RN's or staff per "usual care." This model helps us define and delineate what constitutes care management as well as RN specific patient outcomes r/t to it.

     

    We must demonstrate the value of Care Management and we cannot do that well when there are competing priorities, complexities and "other duties" constantly demanding our attention.

     

    Deb

     

     

    Deborah L. Cantlin, MSN, RN, CHFN, AMB-BC
    She/Her

    Nurse Educator-Professional Practice

    Dartmouth Health Daisy Coordinator

    Department of Nursing Excellence

    Tel 603 650 6746
    Dartmouth-Health.org

     

     

     




    Attachment(s)



  • 25.  RE: Nurse Visits and Charging Appropriately

    Posted 01-13-2026 17:13

    Our ENT clinic uses 99211 for RN visits for patients who come in to have their earwax removed with instrumentation and microsuction under otomicroscopy. In order for the visit to be billable, the patient must be established with a provider who has documented in a previous visit that the patient needs regular follow up visits to have their ears cleaned. We have to document the patient's symptoms (itching, pain, fullness, muffled hearing) and/or the need for cleaning (to allow for further testing and treatment, to allow for unobstructed inspection of the inner ear structures). And then we need to document the patient's response to the cleaning. A supervising provider must be present in clinic, but they do not have to be in the room - just available in case of escalation or abnormal finding. 

    One issue I have with 99211 is that the reimbursement is very low in light of the training and expertise required to perform this task. It's not just a simple procedure like a vaccination. 



    ------------------------------
    Ingrid Hawkinson
    RN, MSN, AMB-BC
    UCSF Otolaryngology
    San Francisco CA
    415-353-2148
    ------------------------------