Subject	CMS to stop payment for consultation codes effective January 1
Source	AAOMS Newsletter
Publication	Coding Corner Jan/Feb 2010
Effective Date	Feb 1, 2010
Publish Date	Feb 1, 2010

CMS to stop payment for consultation codes effective January 1 

The 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (http:// www.federalregister.gov/ inspection.aspx#special), released in the November 25, 2009, Federal Register, finalizes CMS' proposal to stop making payment for consultation codes (with the exception of G codes used to bill for telehealth consultations). The resulting savings will be redistributed in a budget neutral fashion increasing payments for existing evaluation and management (E/M) services. CMS will adjust the payment for the surgical global period to reflect the higher value of the office visits furnished during the global period. CMS cites various rationales for this new policy including, but not limited to: (1) differential payment for a consultation service is no longer supported because documentation requirements are now similar across all E/M services; (2) local policy interpretations by Medicare contractors are not universally equivalent or acceptable to the physician community, resulting in denials in different localities, and (3) terms such as referral, transfer and consultation, used interchangeably by physicians in clinical settings, confuse the actual meaning of a consultation service and that interpretation of these words varies greatly among members of that community as some label a transfer as a referral and others label a consultation as a referral. AAOMS will continue to monitor this issue to keep you informed.