You Be the Coder: Can Counseling Bump Up Consult Codes?

Question: Our physician provides pre-op consultations for requesting surgeons. He completed the consult with a recent patient, but also spent quite a bit of time discussing and focusing on the patient's hypertension. Can we bill that separately as education or counseling (or a problem-focused visit), or is it included in the consult?

Illinois Subscriber

Answer: Anything discussed as part of a consult is included in that encounter's consultation code. That's one difference between consultations and preventive visits, when you might be able to code separately for discussing "problems."

For the consultation code, choose from 99241-99245 (Office consultation for a new or established [...]

- Published on 2011-12-14