8 Jul 2010

by Webmaster9

The rumor about consultation codes becoming obsolete for Medicare in 2010 became official when the CMS Final Rule was published on October 30 last year. So from January 1, 2010, consultation codes are no longer recognized for Medicare Part B Fee for Service payments. For the uninitiated, consult codes are what healthcare providers used to submit to Medicare for reimbursement when a patient was seen for a medical consultation, be it in a provider’s office or hospital setting. As such, this year, if you perform a consult in the office, you need to choose an office visit code – new (99201-99205) or established (99211-99215). The doing away of consultation codes certainly means that medical coders, billers and healthcare providers will be up against the wall when it comes to handling the situation. Therefore they will have to learn new ways to code for these services; in fact they will now have to make do with codes which reimburse less. The financial impact on some practices may be overwhelming. With the reduced reimbursements, physicians will need to have more hardworking billing people who would be more aggressive in collecting and following up on unpaid claims. Since the deletion of the consult codes is occupying every mind related to the coding world, CMS has come up with instructions on how to code for the services that were previously identified as consultations. For CMS consultation codes 2010 updates, there are also one-stop coding websites you can turn to. Such websites will also provide you with basic information on what codes are eliminated by Medicare and how to bill for the services physicians will still be providing.

We provide you simple, instant connection to official code descriptors & guidelines and other tools for CPT coding, HCPCS lookup that help coders and billers to excel in the work they do every day.