Health Law

Medicare Eliminates Consult Codes

By Todd Rodriguez

In case you missed it, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminated use of the evaluation and management Consultation Codes.  Consultations are now to be billed using the standard E/M visit codes.  According to CMS Transmittal 1875:

"Effective January 1, 2010, the consultation codes are no longer recognized for Medicare Part B payment. Physicians shall code patient evaluation and management visit with E/M codes that represent where the visit occurs and that identify the complexity of the visit performed. In the inpatient hospital setting and the nursing facility setting all physicians (and qualified nonphysicians where permitted) who perform an initial evaluation and management may bill the initial hospital care codes (99221 – 99223) or nursing facility care codes (99304-99306). As a result of this change, multiple billings of initial hospital and nursing home visit codes could occur even in a single day."

Full post as published by Physician Law on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).