Inpatient consult code

Does the three-year rule apply to inpatient visits in a hospital when a specialist is called in for a consultation to review a patient whom he had treated in last 3 years in his own office? How to code this situation? Here I am assuming that the payer follows Medicare rule and not paying for 99241 / 99251 codes anymore.

Please help.

3 year

There is no "New" "established" status for inpatients. If medically necessary and well documented should be paid. Private payers may still pay on consult codes, Medicare 99221-99223

new versus established and initial hospital services

For E/M services, there are only a few categories of codes that are divided into new and established:

the new and established office and outpatient codes

home visits

preventive medicine

(I don't have my CPT book, but that's all I can think of from memory).

ED, nursing home, consults, hospital services: none of those are defined as new or established.