Effective January 1, 2010, Medicare will no longer pay for
services billed using consultation CPT® codes, except for telehealth services. This change was made in a budget neutral
manner, such that Medicare increased the payments for new patient visits.
Starting January 1, office visits should be billed using either a
new patient visit code (99201-99205) if new patient criteria are met; if not, use
an established patient visit code (99211-99215). Inpatient consultations should be billed as initial daily care
visits (99221-99223) with subsequent visits billed as subsequent daily care
(99231-99233).
CMS has made this change to address the confusion about appropriate
billing for consultation services and transfer of care issues. Previously, a consultation could be billed
only when the consulting physician had not assumed responsibility for the
patient's care and was strictly providing his/her advice to the treating
physician. CMS found that more often than
not, consultation codes were billing inappropriately as the "consulting"
physician had assumed some or all of the patient care responsibilities. The elimination of payment for consultation
codes should yield one positive result in that CMS audits should no longer
identify inappropriate billing of consultation services as a frequent problem
requiring repayment to Medicare. As CMS
notes "the major effects of the provision may actually simplify coding because
physicians will use the office and hospital visit codes in place of
consultations and will not have to determine whether the requirements to bill a
consult are met."
Each practice should evaluate the effects of this change based
on the practice's unique mix of services provided. However, radiation oncologists will likely experience a decline
in evaluation and management service revenue as a result of this new CMS policy.
Please note that the CPT codes for consultation services
will remain in the CPT book. However,
no payment will be made by Medicare when services are billed using these codes.
It is unclear whether additional
payers will follow Medicare's policy and eliminate payment for consultation
codes.
Three new telehealth G codes are payable when used to bill telehealth
services for inpatients. The codes are:
·G0425 - Initial inpatient telehealth consultation,
typically 30 minutes communicating with the patient via telehealth.
·G0426 - Initial inpatient telehealth consultation,
typically 50 minutes communicating with the patient via telehealth.
·G0427 - Initial inpatient telehealth consultation,
typically 70 minutes or more communicating with the patient via telehealth.
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Medicare Eliminates Payment for Consultation
Codes
