Coding Note

As of January 1, 2010, Medicare eliminated both inpatient and outpatient consultation codes. Both the admitting physician and the consulting physicians who perform an initial evaluation and management service should bill the initial hospital care codes (99221–99223), but the admitting physician will have to place the –AI modifier on his or her claim. As a result of this change, multiple billing of initial hospital and nursing-home visit codes can occur in a single day. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services created the “AI” modifier to be used by the admitting or attending physician who oversees the patient’s care as distinct from other physicians who may be furnishing specialty care. The “AI” modifier is defined as “Principal Physician of Record.”

Referred to as -X modifiers, they are designed to define specific subsets of -59 modifier

The ICD-10 page on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website features a countdown clock that shows the time left until Oct. 1, 2015, the date on which compliance with the new code set becomes mandatory. By the time this issue goes to press, the clock will read 90 or fewer days. Time…

There is value in specialty training

With the elimination of consultation codes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), many rheumatology practices are finding it a heavy burden to bill the appropriate codes for the time they spend with patients.

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