Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: Our physicians do follow-up groin checks in the office after catheterization (different day). Is it appropriate to code these separately?

North Carolina Subscriber

Answer: Typically, practices do not bill separately for follow-up groin checks of the access site. Usually, the physician provides this service as part of a more extensive E/M service, so you would bill the appropriate E/M code, such as 99213 (Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ...) for a low-complexity problem visit.

Moreover, you should not append modifier 24 (Unrelated evaluation and management service by the same physician during a postoperative period) because this service would not fall under the global period for catheterizations and interventions, which ends on the day of service.