After the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified telemedicine billing guidelines for physicians across a range of settings, Medicare administrators are mirroring that guidance for teleradiology.
Instructions from Novitas, the Medicare administrator in Texas, walk through three scenarios for teleradiology services:
- A radiologist with a private practice interpreting tests from home;
- A radiologist interpreting tests from home for a practice group located in the same state; and
- A radiologist interpreting tests from home for a practice group located in a different state.
In the first scenario, Medicare bases payment on the radiologist’s home location. In the two scenarios involving reassignment to a practice, payment is still based on the radiologist’s home location, but the practice has the right to bill and receive it. In all three scenarios, the biller should select the practice location type as “Business Office for Administrative/Telehealth Use Only” or “Home Office for Administrative/Telehealth Use Only” to prevent the radiologist’s home address from being published on Medicare’s Care Compare tool.
CMS also has details on billing for out-of-state practices.
Via guidance updated in July, CMS provided directions for physicians who deliver “telehealth services from home without listing their home address on their Medicare enrollment.” CMS says this flexibility, initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency, is now permanent policy, and explains which practice location selections will keep a physician’s home address from appearing on Medicare’s Care Compare tool.
Additionally, CMS advises physicians who want their home addresses suppressed while enrollment applications are being processed to email the agency that request.
Check in with the Texas Medical Association’s Physician Payment Resource Center for any difficulties securing Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial health plan payment.
Last Updated On
September 01, 2026
Originally Published On
September 01, 2026
Phil West
Associate Editor
(512) 370-1394
phil.west[at]texmed[dot]org
Phil West is a writer and editor whose publications include the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Austin American-Statesman, and San Antonio Express-News. He earned a BA in journalism from the University of Washington and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin’s James A. Michener Center for Writers. He lives in Austin with his wife, children, and a trio of free-spirited dogs.