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CMS eliminates payment for medical consult codes

Effective January 1, 2010, CMS will stop payment for medical consults (99241-99245 and 99251-99255, other than the G codes that are used to bill for telehealth consultations), and redistribute the resulting savings to increase payments for the existing evaluation and management (E/M) services.

The work relative value units (RVUs) for new and established office visits, as well as initial hospital and initial nursing facility visits, will be increased to reflect the higher value of the office visits furnished during the global period.The RVUs for new and established patients will increase by 6 percent in 2010.

As we know, CPT and CMS define a new patient as one who has not received a service from a physician (or another physician in the same specialty, and the same group) in the past three years.