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Good Morning,
Can anyone give feed back regarding charging for a visit during the 90 day global (Surgery related) in the January 27 Orthopedic coding Alert?
My physician just handed me a sample copy, it reads as follows:
Question- A patient went out of state for surgery ( a 90 day global PX) and came back to our practice for the suture removal. What can we charge? Can we charge the E/M visit using modifier 24 since we are taking over the patient's care?
Answer- Code the suture removal as part of an office visit code (99201-99215, office or other outpatient visit) including v58.32 ( Encounter for removal of sutures). You do not need to append any modifiers. "Removal of sutures by other than the operating surgeon may be coded as a level of E/M service if the suture removal is the only p/o service performed, according to AMA's CPT Assistant (Spring 1992).
Alternative: HCPCS does offer a suture removal code, S0630 (Removal of sutures by a physician other than the physician who originally closed the wound). But you should check with payers before using this code, which contains no RVU and is not recognnized by Medicare and several other carriers.
Can anyone give feed back regarding charging for a visit during the 90 day global (Surgery related) in the January 27 Orthopedic coding Alert?
My physician just handed me a sample copy, it reads as follows:
Question- A patient went out of state for surgery ( a 90 day global PX) and came back to our practice for the suture removal. What can we charge? Can we charge the E/M visit using modifier 24 since we are taking over the patient's care?
Answer- Code the suture removal as part of an office visit code (99201-99215, office or other outpatient visit) including v58.32 ( Encounter for removal of sutures). You do not need to append any modifiers. "Removal of sutures by other than the operating surgeon may be coded as a level of E/M service if the suture removal is the only p/o service performed, according to AMA's CPT Assistant (Spring 1992).
Alternative: HCPCS does offer a suture removal code, S0630 (Removal of sutures by a physician other than the physician who originally closed the wound). But you should check with payers before using this code, which contains no RVU and is not recognnized by Medicare and several other carriers.