I work for a specialty clinic whose physicians are on call with a local hospital for inpatient matters. Recently, a patient who was in a remote location was seen by a physician who requested a Telephone Consultation (99446). Our physician performed the Telephone/Internet consultation in accordance to CPT guidelines. The next day, the patient was flown in to the local hospital. The hospital physician requested our physician (same one) to do an Inpatient Consultation, which our physician performed. The pt. is not medicare/VA/military. The problem I am experiencing is that we’d like to bill for both services but, under the guidelines for the Telephone/Internet Consultations, it states "When the telephone/internet consultation leads to a immediate transfer of care OR OTHER face to face service (eg, a surgery, a hospital visit, or a scheduled office evaluation of the patient) within the next 14 days or next available appointment date of the consultant, these codes are not reported". Question is then, does the physician simply not bill for the telephone internet consultation and receive no reimbursement or is there something I’m missing? Thank you for your assistance.
Mike