Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Question: I'm hearing that consultation codes (99241-99255) will go away in 2010. How will this affect gastroenterology? Pennsylvania Subscriber Answer: CMS has proposed ending coverage of consultation codes (99241-99255) to increase payments for primary care services. The AMA plans on maintaining the codes at least for CPT 2010. For Medicare and private payers that adopt Medicare's consultation coverage change, you would use E/M codes (99201-99215 for office visits or 99221-99223 for hospital care), rather than consultation codes (99241-99245 for outpatient consults and 99251-99255 for inpatient consults). The proposed rule suggests redistributing the savings that would result from invalidating consultation codes into payments for E/M services, such as office visits (99201- 99215, Office or other outpatient visit ...) and initial hospital care (99221-99223). CMS would still leave the values for 99241-99245 in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule so that private payers can see the codes' relative  value units agreed upon by [...]