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General Surgery Coding Alert

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Lock Down Consultation Requests With This Form

Published on Sun Jun 28, 2009

Sending this in every case will help eliminate your transfer-of-care issues. If youre forced to report an office visit code instead of a consultation code because you dont have the documentation to support the consult code, you could cost your practice double-digit amounts on every visit. Proving whether the requesting physician wants your surgeons opinion, or is transferring the care of the patients problem to your general surgeon, is crucial to your code choice. The requests intent can make the difference between a consult and an office visit. And based on coding 99203 for a level-three office visit instead of 99243 for a level-three consult, the difference could cost you $33 per service. (The 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule assigns 2.55 transitional total relative value units to 99203 and 3.46 to 99243). Using a standard form, such as this one that Patricia A. Trites, MPA, CHBC, CPC, CEMC, CHCC, CHCO,CHP, [...]
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