Mini-mental status exam

I would like to know when the change to the mini-mental status exam was made wherein it had to be part of the evaluation and management codes for nursing homes and medical practice offices. Please provide me with the official reference location.

A long time

I can't quote you the definite reference but I can tell you that we have had to code that way for a while now - at least 3-4 years. We give them to our Alzheimer's and dementia patients and they have been included with the visit for a long time.

Mini mental status exam

You might have to go back and look at the old CPT books. At some point, under the behavioral testing section, they added, "For mini mental status exam see E/M" codes.