Wiki Dog Bite

[Mindy Davis]

If you have a patient that was previously seen in your ER due to a dog bite and they get stitches and are coming back in for a recheck and the patient has a fever and has developed abscess on the wound and they were are given meds. Can we bill for an EM? If so would we need a modifier?

 

[eadun2000]

I am presuming this is during the global period. Yes you can code for an E&M because of the complication and new meds. You can add the mod 24 to the E&M.

 

[Mindy Davis]

Ok I looked at modifier 24 but the reason I didn't think it was right was because it says that it's an unrelated EM by the same physician during the postoperative period. The patient didn't see the same physician when they returned. Does that matter? Since they are in the same group?

 

[kak6]

We do bill for this as long as the Dr did a complete evaluation. Usually a low level depending on the severity of the abscess and what kind of meds were given. At this point it is a new condition, level 2 if minor and level 3 if more serious, and no modifier at all.