Consults vs Referrals
Consult:
The referring provider asks a specialist to evaluate a patient and provide an opinion, but the patient does not transfer care to the specialist. The referring provider continues to manage the patient's care and will follow up on the consultant's recommendations.
Referrals :
The referring provider requests that a specialist take over the patient's care for a specific condition or service. The patient's care is transferred to the specialist for that particular issue.
You may encounter a Veteran who says something like, “My consult was approved weeks ago, why don't you have it?” Although that may be the case, the VA still has to authorize a referral in their community care dept and then assign it to Zeel. Sometimes this does take time.