Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Find out how much CMS will raise payment for other E/M codes. The inevitable has happened -- Medicare will no longer recognize consultation codes in 2010, but don't tear out those pages altogether. You can still submit these codes to non-Medicare payers who don't follow Medicare's lead. Lowdown: "Beginning January 1, 2010, we will eliminate the use of all consultation codes (inpatient and office/outpatient codes for various places of service except for telehealth consultation G codes) on a budget neutral basis by increasing the work RVUs for new and established office visits" and for initial hospital and initial nursing facility visits, the Final Rule notes. This means eliminating CMS reimbursement for all inpatient (99251-99255, Inpatient consultation for a new or established patient ...) and outpatient (99241- 99245, Office consultation for a new or established patient ...) consultation codes. The elimination of consult codes will hurt specialty practices in particular, says Susan Vogelberger, [...]