Radiology Coding Alert

Pull out the calculator: Is charging consult worth the effort? Medicare may have sent consult codes to the chopping block, but some private payers have kept those codes on their payable list. Result: You have to decide what to do when the patient's primary insurer is willing to accept a consult code, but Medicare, as the secondary payer, will not. Here's How to Handle MSP Situations Early on, when the transition from using consult codes was first being discussed, one of the issues still up in the air for coders was what to do if Medicare is the secondary payer, says Sandy Fuller CPC, MCS-P, HIS supervisor and compliance officer for Cardiovascular Associates of East Texas. Outcome: The "Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) will not pay for consults," says Samantha Daily, billing specialist with a practice in Portland, Ore. Recently published MLN Matters article MM6740 indicates the following: "In MSP cases, [...]