Rufus186
Networker
Can you bill 99238/99239 during the post operative period of a surgery charge by the same physician or same group practice?
Thanks
Thanks
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Wiki 99238/99239 Hospital discharge day mgmt
- Thread starter Rufus186
- Start date
jdibble
True Blue
No - if the discharging physician is the surgeon and it is within the global period, the physician or group cannot bill for the discharge.
Tonyj
True Blue
Wouldn't/shouldn't the discharge note be from the admitting physician/group?
jdibble
True Blue
Tonyj - A surgeon can be the admitting doctor too. For example if a patient comes to the office or ER for a ruptured appendicitis, he may admit the patient because they will need to stay after surgery. Since he is the admitting doctor, he would be responsible for discharging the patient, but because the patient is now in the global period for the surgery, he cannot bill for the discharge summary.
If, for example, the hospitalist group was the one that admitted the patient, then it wouldn't matter about the global for the surgery, because they would be the ones billing for the discharge, not the surgeon. The global would only apply to any services that the performing surgeon would provide.
Last edited:
Rufus186
Networker
Thank you for the insight it was very helpful 