Wiki Consult Codes

[johnsonw]

Due to the absence of the consult codes with Medicare, they allow what would have been a consult to be billed as a hospital admit 99221-99223 and a true hospital admission uses the same codes with a modifier AI.
Now that commercial carriers, Tricare, and VA are following Medicare with the deletion of consults are they accepting this inpatient coding scenario? Does anyone have experience or articles to verify?

 

[GCLindsay]

I have used the 99251-99255 range within the past year for commercial payers with success. We just had to wait to make sure the hospital had turned in the admission information before we submitted our charges.

 

[ShastaArnold18]

We use the Medicare guidelines and haven't had any denials.