Dr. gonzalez spends 25 minutes with the patient and his spouse, counseling and discussing advance care planning for his cancer treatment. This is properly coded as Prolonged Services with Direct Patient Contact, using CPT code 99354.
The scenario of Dr. Gonzalez spending 25 minutes with the patient and his spouse for counseling and discussing advance care planning for cancer treatment falls under the category of prolonged services with direct patient contact. In medical coding, CPT code 99354 is used to represent prolonged services when a physician's face-to-face time with a patient exceeds the typical duration associated with a specific evaluation and management (E/M) service.
In this case, the extended time spent on counseling and discussing advance care planning beyond the usual service warrants the use of a prolonged service code. This code acknowledges the additional time and effort invested by the physician in providing comprehensive and necessary care for the patient and their spouse in the context of cancer treatment planning.