AAFP guide gives how-tos on group visits for overweight and obese patients

Through the Americans in Motion initiative, AAFP has released a step-by-step guide to conducting and getting paid for group visits for patients with health conditions related to being overweight or obese, such as diabetes.

“A Guide to Group Visits for Chronic Conditions Affected by Overweight and Obesity” provides information on how to plan, conduct and follow-up on group visits for patients—one of the tenets of the Future of Family Medicine project to increase revenue—which includes sample scripts for recruitment calls, invitation letters to patients, a confidentiality form and HIPAA notice, and the AIM fitness inventory to give patients their AIM fitness prescription.

The guide also gives instructions on billing for group visits as evaluation and management services, within Medicare and Medicaid, and as diabetes self-management. Billing for group visits is different because physicians do not bill based on time, but rather on the “complexity of the diagnosis and your documentation.”

To find more information on Americans in Motion and access additional materials on group visits, go to www.americansinmotion.org.