Medicare Patient coded as Consult but patient in Observ. status

Okay,

I have a Medicare patient that a physician coded as a consult. I obviously can not use the Consult codes, but I also can not use an IP (99221-99223)E/M code because patient was never admitted. Do I use an office visit (99201-99205, 99211-99215) E/M code, or can I use an Observation E/M code? I'm lost. TIA!


Rich

re: Medicare Patient coded as Consult but patient in Observ. status

you would use an new patient E&M code 99201-99205. Observation codes are only for hospitals, as in states in the CPT® book, observation or inpatient codes ar for patients who are admitted and discharged on the same day:)

re: Medicare Patient coded as Consult but patient in Observ. status

Thank you very much for your help!

Rich

re: Medicare Patient coded as Consult but patient in Observ. status

There is a pdf attached to this article that you can download.

http://codapedia.com/article_517_Category-of-Code-Selection.cfm