Primary care providers handle everything from routine checkups to managing chronic conditions, treating acute illnesses, and coordinating care for their patients. Getting the billing right means knowing which Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes apply to the wide range of services you provide every day. This guide breaks down the most important CPT codes for primary care practices, helping you document accurately and get properly reimbursed for your work.
What Makes CPT Codes Important in Primary Care?
CPT codes are five-digit numbers created by the American Medical Association (AMA) that describe the medical services you provide. Think of them as a universal language that tells insurance companies exactly what you did during a patient visit. In primary care, where you might see 20 different patients with 20 different concerns in a single day, using the right codes keeps your revenue flowing and your documentation solid.
Primary care is unique because you’re often the first stop for patients. You diagnose new problems, manage ongoing conditions like diabetes and hypertension, provide preventive care, and coordinate referrals to specialists. Each of these services has specific codes attached, and knowing which ones to use makes a real difference in your practice’s bottom line.
Office Visit Codes: The Backbone of Primary Care Billing
Most of what happens in primary care centers around office visits. These Evaluation and Management (E&M) codes are your bread and butter, representing the time and medical decision-making you put into each patient encounter.
New Patient Visits (99202-99205)
When someone walks through your door for the first time, you’ll use new patient codes. These visits typically take longer because you’re establishing a relationship, gathering a complete medical history, and creating a treatment plan from scratch.
The codes range from 99202 (straightforward visit) to 99205 (high-level visit with significant medical decision-making). A healthy 25-year-old coming in for a physical will likely fall into the 99202 or 99203 range. But if you’re seeing a 65-year-old with multiple chronic conditions who’s never been to your practice before, you’re probably looking at a 99204 or 99205.
Established Patient Visits (99211-99215)
These codes cover follow-up visits with patients you’ve already seen. The 99211 is sometimes called a “nurse visit” because it’s minimal, think quick blood pressure checks or vaccine administration where the doctor might not even see the patient. Most primary care visits fall into the 99213 or 99214 range.
A 99213 works well for straightforward follow-ups: checking in on someone’s controlled diabetes, refilling medications for stable conditions, or treating a simple upper respiratory infection. Move up to 99214 when things get more involved, adjusting multiple medications, addressing new symptoms on top of existing conditions, or dealing with an acute problem that requires careful decision-making.
The 99215 is reserved for your most involved visits. These are patients with multiple serious conditions, significant new problems, or situations requiring extensive review of records and coordination of care.
Preventive Care Codes: Keeping Patients Healthy
Primary care is about preventing illnesses, just as much as it’s about treating them. Preventive visit codes are separate from regular office visits and have different billing rules.
Annual Physical Exams (99381-99397)
These codes split into two categories: new patients (99381-99387) and established patients (99391-99397). Within each category, the codes vary by age group. For example, 99391 covers an annual physical for an established patient aged 18-39, while 99397 is for patients 65 and older.
Preventive visits focus on health maintenance: reviewing health history, performing age-appropriate screenings, discussing lifestyle factors, and updating immunizations. Insurance companies have been known to cover these visits at 100% under the Affordable Care Act, but there’s a catch. If you start diagnosing and treating problems during a preventive visit, you may need to add a separate E&M code with a modifier 25.
Common Screening and Counseling Codes
- 99401-99404: Risk factor reduction counseling (individual)
- 96160-96161: Health risk assessment
- G0442-G0443: Annual alcohol screening and counseling
- G0444: Depression screening
These codes let you bill separately for important preventive services that might happen during a regular visit.
Diagnostic Testing in the Primary Care Setting
Primary care providers order and sometimes perform various diagnostic tests. Knowing the right codes ensures you get paid for this work.
Common In-Office Tests
If your practice performs tests on-site, these codes come into play regularly:
- 81002: Urinalysis (non-automated, without microscopy)
- 81003: Urinalysis (automated, without microscopy)
- 82947-82950: Glucose testing (various methods)
- 85018: Hemoglobin test
- 85025: Complete blood count (CBC) with automated differential
- 36415: Routine venipuncture
Many primary care offices have point-of-care testing equipment that allows for rapid strep tests, flu tests, and basic lab work. Each test has its own code, and you’ll also code for the specimen collection (like venipuncture) separately.
Diagnostic Imaging and Procedures
- 93000: Electrocardiogram (EKG) with interpretation
- 93005: Tracing only (when you perform the test but don’t interpret it)
- 94760: Pulse oximetry
- 71045-71048: Chest X-ray (if performed in your office)
- 69210: Ear wax removal
Managing Chronic Conditions
Primary care providers spend significant time managing chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, COPD, and heart disease. Beyond regular office visits, there are specific codes that recognize this ongoing work.
Chronic Care Management (CCM) Codes
If you spend at least 20 minutes per month coordinating care for patients with two or more chronic conditions, you can bill for chronic care management:
- 99490: First 20 minutes of clinical staff time
- 99439: Each additional 20 minutes
- 99491: Complex CCM (first hour by physician or clinical staff)
These codes require documented patient consent and specific tracking of time spent on care coordination activities like medication management, care plan updates, and communication with other providers.
Transitional Care Management (TCM)
When patients leave the hospital or skilled nursing facility, transitional care management codes help you bill for the extra work involved in getting them back on track:
- 99495: Moderate complexity (requires contact within 2 business days)
- 99496: High complexity (requires contact within 2 business days)
These codes bundle all the work you do in the 30 days after discharge, phone calls, medication reconciliation, reviewing hospital records, and a required face-to-face visit within 7 or 14 days.
Procedures Commonly Performed in Primary Care
Primary care providers handle various minor procedures that deserve separate billing beyond the office visit code.
Skin Procedures
- 11055-11057: Paring or cutting of corns and calluses
- 11200-11201: Removal of skin tags
- 11400-11446: Excision of benign skin lesions (codes vary by size and location)
- 11720-11721: Nail debridement or trimming
- 17000-17004: Destruction of benign or premalignant lesions
Injections and Administrations
- 96372: Subcutaneous or intramuscular injection (like vitamin B12, antibiotics)
- 96401: Chemotherapy injection (subcutaneous or intramuscular)
- 20610: Arthrocentesis (joint aspiration), major joint
- J-codes: Used alongside administration codes to identify the specific drug given
When you give an injection, you typically bill both the administration code (like 96372) and the drug code (a J-code) that identifies what medication you administered.
Immunization Codes: A Two-Part Process
Vaccines require two codes. One for the vaccine product itself and one for administering it.
Administration Codes
- 90460-90461: Immunization administration with counseling (first vaccine and each additional)
- 90471-90472: Immunization administration without counseling (first vaccine and each additional)
- 90473-90474: Intranasal or oral vaccine administration
Vaccine Product Codes (90xxx)
These codes specify which vaccine you gave.
For example:
- 90707: MMR vaccine
- 90686: Influenza vaccine
- 90715: Tdap vaccine
Your billing team needs to code both the product and the administration to get full reimbursement.
Telehealth and Remote Care
The growth of telehealth has opened new billing opportunities for primary care practices. Most office visit codes (99202-99215) can be used for telehealth visits when you add modifier 95 to show the service was provided remotely.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
For patients with chronic conditions, remote monitoring codes let you bill for tracking their health data outside office visits:
- 99453: Initial setup and patient education (one-time code)
- 99454: Device supply with daily recording (per 30-day period)
- 99457: First 20 minutes of monitoring and treatment management
- 99458: Each additional 20 minutes
These codes work well for monitoring blood pressure, glucose levels, weight, or other vital signs between visits.
Special Situations and Modifiers
Sometimes you need to add modifiers to your codes to give insurance companies more information about the service you provided.
Key Modifiers for Primary Care
- Modifier 25 is probably the most important one you’ll use. It tells the payer that you provided a significant, separately identifiable E&M service on the same day as another procedure. For example, if a patient comes in for a physical (preventive visit) but you also need to address their uncontrolled blood pressure (problem visit), you’d bill the preventive code and add an office visit code with modifier 25.
- Modifier 95 indicates a synchronous telehealth service, you and the patient connected in real-time via video.
- Modifier 59 shows that a procedure was distinct or separate from other services performed on the same day.
Documentation: Your Billing Safety Net
Good documentation protects you during audits and supports the codes you submit. Your notes should clearly show what you did and why you did it.
For E&M codes, document the patient’s chief complaint, relevant history, your examination findings, your assessment (diagnosis), and your plan. The 2021 E&M guidelines let you choose codes based on either time or medical decision-making, which gives you flexibility, but your documentation needs to support whichever method you use.
Medical decision-making considers three factors: the number and type of problems addressed, the amount and complexity of data you reviewed or ordered, and the risk involved in treatment. Straightforward problems with minimal data review and low risk point toward lower-level codes. Multiple chronic conditions, extensive record review, and higher-risk treatments justify higher-level codes.
Avoiding Common Billing Mistakes
Certain coding errors keep popping up in primary care.
Here’s what to watch out for:
- Choosing codes based only on time
While time can determine E&M level, it’s not the only factor. If you spend 30 minutes with a patient but the medical decision-making is straightforward, you can’t automatically bill a high-level code. - Forgetting modifier 25
When you do a procedure and an E&M service on the same day, that modifier 25 on the E&M code is crucial. Without it, the office visit gets bundled into the procedure and you lose that reimbursement. - Inconsistent documentation
If your note says you examined multiple body systems but you only documented two, auditors will downcode your claim. Write what you did. - Not coding everything you do
Did you spend time reviewing outside records? Coordinating with a specialist? These activities count and should be documented and coded when appropriate. - Using outdated codes
CPT codes change annually. Make sure your billing software and your team stay current.
Staying Current with Coding Changes
The CPT code book gets updated every January, and payers often release new policies throughout the year. Primary care practices need systems to stay informed about these changes.
Subscribe to updates from the AMA, CMS, and your major payers. Many state primary care associations offer coding resources and training. Consider having someone on your team become certified in medical coding, their expertise pays for itself through improved accuracy and fewer claim denials.
Why Accurate Primary Care Coding Matters
Getting your coding right isn’t just about maximizing revenue, though that’s certainly important. Accurate codes create a clear picture of what’s happening with your patient population. These codes feed into quality metrics, public health tracking, and research that improves healthcare for everyone.
When you correctly code for chronic care management, preventive services, and care coordination, you’re not only getting paid fairly, you’re demonstrating the value that primary care brings to the healthcare system. This data helps argue for better reimbursement rates and recognition of primary care’s central role in keeping patients healthy.
Primary care providers juggle an incredible range of responsibilities. From newborn checkups to geriatric care, from mental health screening to wound care, your day is never predictable. Having a solid grasp of CPT codes, or a billing team that does, lets you focus on patient care while ensuring your practice stays financially healthy.
Getting Help with Your Primary Care Billing
If coding and billing feel overwhelming on top of everything else you’re managing, you’re not alone. Many primary care practices partner with specialized billing companies to handle these details. At Medwave, we focus specifically on medical billing, credentialing, and payer contracting for healthcare providers. We understand the particular challenges primary care faces and work to maximize your reimbursement while keeping your documentation compliant.
Whether you’re looking to outsource your entire primary care billing operation or just need help with specific coding questions, having expert support can make a significant difference in your practice’s financial health.