Place of service
A place-of-service (POS) code reports where a healthcare service was furnished — office, hospital, ambulatory surgical center, telehealth, and so on — and can change how a claim is paid.
Updated
A place-of-service (POS) code is a two-digit code maintained by CMS that identifies the setting in which a service was provided. It appears on a professional claim and tells the payer where the encounter occurred — for example, an office, an inpatient hospital, an emergency department, an ambulatory surgical center, or the patient's home.
The setting can affect whether a service is covered and how it is reimbursed. The same service furnished in two different settings may carry different POS codes, and a payer's payment rules often depend on the reported setting.
In practice
POS accuracy matters because the code can drive the payment rate and the benefit category. Telehealth and other settings that changed rapidly have introduced POS codes and payment distinctions that vary by payer and by date, so the setting reported should match where the service was actually furnished and the payer's current guidance.
Commonly confused with
- Facility type: A facility type describes an institutional setting (inpatient vs. outpatient, for instance) on an institutional claim; a place-of-service code is the professional-claim counterpart that reports the setting of a physician or clinical service.