Continuity Matters: Financial Impact of the G2211 Code in Primary Care.

Abstract

Family medicine is financially undervalued compared with other medical specialties, and reimbursement fails to recognize the valuable longitudinal care provided to patients. According to one estimate, a primary care physician earns approximately $80,000 less than a subspecialist peer in Medicare reimbursement over a one-year period.1 This gap persists despite primary care physicians addressing higher numbers of medical concerns during office visits. To address continuity, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the G2211 code in 2019 to compensate for the "visit complexity inherent to evaluation and management associated with medical care services."2 The G2211 code was implemented in January 2024.