Wiki Surgical global period

[harms]

A patient has a surgical procedure that allows them a 90-day global post operative care at no charge, however this patient had a wound vac applied at the time of the surgery that remained in place past the 90 day global. My question is does this patient get the 90 day global extended because of the application of the wound vac and the fact that it was tied to the surgery? Or does the patient then flip to become a billable visit and charged a copay?

Thank you

 

[thomas7331]

The surgical global period is not flexible - it is fixed at the designated number of days. However, I do know that many practices will provide some post-operative services at no charge as a courtesy to the patient - for example, if an earlier appointment was not available and the patient had to be seen on a later date which put the service outside of the global period and it was outside of their control. You're within coding guidelines to submit a charge, but your practice can also decide what to do in this case based on customer service considerations.