Wiki Preoperative Visits

[Paigelyn]

A surgeon performs a consult with a patient in the hospital and makes a decision for surgery. The surgery happens a week or two later for any of these reasons.. scheduling OR time, patient needs cardiac clearance, patient has an infection that needs to resolve first etc... Our surgeon, or our PA's round on this patient every day. Do we bill for the consult only and all of the other visits for the next week or two are not billable (preoperative visits)?

 

[thomas7331]

The global period does not begin until the day before a major procedure, so any medically necessary E/M services performed prior to that time can be billed. Certainly if the patient is hospitalized and requires daily management, then it is appropriate to bill for those. Once the global period begins, you cannot bill for any E/M services related to the operative care if the decision for the surgery has already been made.