Effective January 1, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began no longer paying for CPT consultation codes (inpatient and office/outpatient codes) except for telehealth consultation HCPCS G-codes. Providers should now report visits that would have been billed under CPT consultation codes, with an E/M code based on where the visit occurs and the complexity of the visit performed. This change in policy applies only to providers billing Medicare under the fee-for-service program.

It has been a few months since Medicare officially announced they would no longer allow payment for the inpatient (99251-99255) or outpatient (99241-99245) consultation codes. The works RVUs for the consultation codes have been distributed to increase the work RVUs for the new and established outpatient, initial hospital and initial nursing facility visit codes.