cmoon
Contributor
I work in a GI office and we get a lot of patient referrals from outside our practice. I am trying to come up with a simple description for my providers to help them distinguish between a referral and a consult. Is it fair to say that if the referring provider is asking for an opinion/diagnosis, then it is a consult. And if the referral says 'needs routine screening colonoscopy', then it would be a referral? I have one provider that is very good about documenting the 3 R's and codes alot of his visits as consults but many of them are simply their PCP saying it's time for a routine colon. I don't want to leave money on the table if they really do qualify as consults but I don't want to get paid for something we shouldn't be getting paid for.