The Curbside Trap: Why Physicians Aren't Billing for Their Best Work (And How to Fix It)

Connect with UsEvery physician knows the curbside consult. A colleague stops you in the hallway or catches you between cases. The question is clinical, the advice is expert, and the exchange takes real cognitive effort. Then you both walk away, and that work disappears unlogged, undocumented, unbilled.In this episode of The Connected Practice, Dr. Kevin Halow breaks down why one of medicine's most common knowledge transfers is also one of its most consistently undervalued. The CPT codes to fix this, the interprofessional consultation codes 99446 through 99452, have been in place for years. Most physicians never use them. Not because the work doesn't qualify, but because the documentation burden makes billing more difficult than simply providing free advice.Dr. Halow walks through the specific barriers: the 14-day bundling rule, the patient consent requirement, cumulative time tracking, and the written report obligation. Each one is a legitimate administrative friction point that compounds on an already packed clinical day. Together, they make a $35 code feel like a $350 problem.But the math changes when you stop looking at individual consults and start looking at volume. Dr. Halow shares his own week five curbsides off-call, five more expected on-call, and a realistic estimate of $1,000 per month in consultative revenue that never makes it to a claim.This episode is for any specialist who has ever given away expert advice and told themselves it was not worth the paperwork. The work was worth it. The system just made it impossible to say so.About the ClinicianCore PodcastHosted by Dr. Kevin Halow, the ClinicianCore Podcast explores unified clinical communication, physician burnout reduction, HIPAA-compliant collaboration, and the real impact of AI in healthcare.New episodes are released every Monday at 1 PM EST.If you’re a healthcare leader, physician, administrator, or innovator committed to improving clinical efficiency and restoring clarity to care delivery, this podcast is for you.Follow or subscribe on your preferred platform so you never miss an episode.Learn more about ClinicianCore and our mission to strengthen clinician collaboration at:https://cliniciancore.com/Connect with Dr. Kevin Halow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-halow-md/