CommercialAdministrativeHigh impact
Payment Policies for Telemedicine/Telephone Services for Commercial and Medicare Advantage Products effective 01/01/2021
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island·RI · Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Practice +2 more·Provider Update
Effective date
Jan 1, 2021
We identified it
Jun 19, 2026
Summary
BCBSRI updated its telemedicine/telephone payment policies effective January 1, 2021, replacing temporary COVID-19 policies. Key changes include continuing 100% reimbursement for telemedicine services, specific cost-sharing rules for different codes, and updated claims filing requirements removing the CR modifier.
Action Required
By January 1, 2021: Billing team must update claims processing to stop using CR modifier for ALL telemedicine claims. Continue using POS 02 with 95 modifier for real-time audio/video services, and POS 02 only for telephone services. Update billing software rules to reflect new cost-sharing: codes 99211 and 99212 have no member cost share for primary care and behavioral health providers only. All other telemedicine codes apply appropriate member cost share.