General Surgery Coding Alert

See how Medicare's 99241-99255 ouster affects your coding and reimbursement. Get used to skipping the CPT E/M consultationsection. Starting Jan. 1 you'll have to learn a new way to code services that you used to report with office and inpatient consultation codes -- and which payers expectyou to make that change. Codes Remain -- But When Can You Use Them? Although CMS has halted payment for the in-office consultation codes (99241-99245, Office consultation for a new or established patient ...) and inpatient consultation codes (99251-99255, Inpatient consultation for a new or established patient ...) in 2010, the AMAchose not to delete the codes, keeping them in the CPT manual for another year. Not a total $$ loss: CMS will raise payment for the other E/M codes to try and offset the consult payment loss. For instance, you'll see a 7 percent increase for 99214 (Office or other outpatient visit ...), with physician work [...]