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Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Reader Questions:

End Worries Over Pre Op Visits

Published on Sun Aug 15, 2010

Question: Can you explain what is entailed in a pre op visit? We have a podiatrist who performs surgery on a Friday. Each Tuesday prior to surgery he sees the patient to go over any labs or xrays that he had previously ordered for their surgery. He feels that a lot of time goes into this visit, and due to the lab results the patient does not always end up having surgery. Can we bill this service or should we consider it pre op? Alaska SubscriberAnswer: This is a topic that has been addressed several times and is always of debate. Most major surgical procedures have a global period that starts 24 hours prior to the surgery. If the patient does not have surgery because of complications, then you could certainly bill an office visit (99211-99215).
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