mwerley
New
When does a transfer of care occur? If a practitioner requests a consult for a particular condition and expects us to treat them for that condition isn't that a consultation? In the Medical Economics April Issue its states "that if a physician is taking over the care for the condition that the originating physician referred, then a consultation cannot be billed." In the AMA CPT Code book it clearly states "A consultation is a service provided by a physician whose opinion or advice regarding evaluation and/or management of a specific problem is requested by another physician." It goes on to say "In the hospital or nursing facility setting, the consulting physician should use the appropriate inpatient consultation code for the initial encounter and then subsequent hospital or nursing care codes. Same statement for the office setting. QUESTION: Should'nt we be able to bill an initial consultation and then any subsequent visits if not in a global period?