POS 02 — Telehealth — Other Than Patient's Home: Place of Service Code Explained

POS 02: What It Identifies

POS 02 identifies telehealth services delivered to a patient who is NOT at home — they're at a clinic, facility, school, or other site while connecting to you remotely. Since 2022 it splits the telehealth world with POS 10 (patient at home), and using the wrong one of the pair is one of the most common modern billing errors.

Telehealth coding has changed more in the last few years than almost any other corner of professional billing, and POS 02 specifically traces back to the original, pre-2022 telehealth POS code — before payers split "somewhere else" from "at home," every telehealth visit used what's now POS 02. Practices that haven't updated their scheduling and billing templates since the split are still routing home-based telehealth through POS 02 out of habit, quietly leaving money on the table wherever POS 10 pays a higher non-facility rate.

Use POS 02 For

Telehealth where the patient sits at another clinic, hospital, SNF, or office
Hub-and-spoke telemedicine arrangements (patient at a rural clinic, specialist remote)
Telehealth from any originating site that is not the patient's residence

Don't Use It For

Patient connecting from their home — that's POS 10
In-person visits at any location
Audio-only services where the payer requires specific coding — check modifier 93 rules

How POS 02 Affects Payment

Under Medicare, POS 02 has generally paid the facility rate — lower than in-office — while POS 10 preserves the non-facility rate for home-based telehealth in many scenarios. Commercial payers set their own parity rules, and several states mandate payment parity. The 02/10 distinction is small on the claim and real on the remittance.

Because the rate difference between POS 02 and POS 10 mirrors the facility/non-facility split covered in our RVU calculator, practices running a high telehealth volume should periodically audit a sample of visits against the documented patient location — a systematic POS 02/10 mix-up across hundreds of monthly telehealth visits compounds into real annual revenue variance, in either direction depending on which code is being misapplied.

Common POS 02 Billing Errors

Using POS 02 for at-home patients (undercuts payment where POS 10 pays non-facility rates)
Forgetting the telehealth modifier (95) where the payer still requires it alongside POS
Billing telehealth as POS 11 based on the PROVIDER's location — the patient's location drives POS

Documentation That Supports POS 02

Since POS 02 vs. POS 10 hinges entirely on where the patient is sitting, the encounter note needs to state that location explicitly — "patient connected via telehealth from [clinic/school/other site]" is enough to settle any later question about which code applied. Relying on memory or a generic "telehealth visit" note without the originating site leaves billing guessing, and guessing on this specific field is exactly what drives the POS 02/10 mix-ups that undercut payment or, in the reverse case, overcollect and create audit exposure.

Real-World Scenario

A rural clinic hosts patients for scheduled telehealth consults with an off-site specialist — the patient physically travels to the clinic, sits in an exam room, and connects with the specialist remotely. Because the patient is at a clinic, not their own home, this is POS 02, not POS 10, even though the encounter feels identical to a home telehealth visit from the specialist's side of the screen. Billing this as POS 10 based on the assumption that "telehealth defaults to home" is a common, avoidable error in hub-and-spoke telemedicine arrangements — and one that's easy to catch with a quick review of the scheduling notes for any clinic-hosted telehealth program.

Related POS Codes

POS 10 — Telehealth home POS 11 — Office POS 22 — On-campus outpatient

← Back to the full POS code reference

Reviewed by Hassan Raza Awan, Founder — 4+ years of hands-on U.S. medical billing experience. General billing information — verify against current CMS guidance and your payer contracts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the provider's location matter for telehealth POS?

No — the patient's location decides the POS code. A physician sitting in their office seeing a patient who is at home bills POS 10, not POS 11 or 02. Provider location matters for licensure and enrollment, not for place of service.

Do we still need modifier 95 with POS 02?

Payer-dependent. Some payers treat POS 02/10 as sufficient; others still require modifier 95 (or 93 for audio-only). Keep a per-payer telehealth grid — telehealth billing rules remain the least standardized corner of professional claims.

What counts as the patient's originating site for POS 02?

Any physical location the patient connects from that isn't their own residence — another clinic, a hospital, a skilled nursing facility, a school, or a workplace. If in doubt, document the specific site type in the encounter note rather than just writing "telehealth."

Does POS 02 apply the same way for Medicaid as Medicare?

Not necessarily. State Medicaid programs set their own telehealth POS and payment parity rules, and several diverge from Medicare's facility/non-facility split. Confirm the specific state program's telehealth billing guide before assuming Medicare rules carry over.

POS 02: Telehealth — Other Than Patient's Home