Package Components
The following services are included in the surgeon’s packaged payment:
- Preoperative visits after the decision for surgery is made beginning one day prior to surgery;
- All additional post-operative medical or surgical services provided by the surgeon related to complications, but not require additional trips to the operating room;
- Post-operative visits by the surgeon related to recovery from surgery, including but not limited to dressing changes; local incisional care; removal of cutaneous sutures and staples; line removals; changes and removal of tracheostomy tubes; and discharge services; and
- Post-operative pain management provided by the surgeon.
Services not included are:
- The initial consultation or evaluation of the problem by the surgeon to determine the need for surgery. Append modifier 57 to this visit if provided the day before or day of major surgery to alert the payer that the service resulted in the decision for surgery. Append modifier 25 to this visit if provided the day of minor surgery;
- Services of other physicians except where the other physicians are providing coverage for the surgeon or agree on a transfer of care. This agreement may be in the form of a letter or an annotation in the discharge summary, hospital record, or ASC record;
- Post-operative visits by the surgeon unrelated to the diagnosis for which the surgical procedure is performed, unless the visits occur due to complications of the surgery. These services only are payable after the patient has been discharged from the hospitalization in which the surgery occurred. Append modifier 24 to these unrelated post-op visits;
- Diagnostic tests and procedures, including diagnostic radiological procedures;
- Clearly distinct surgical procedures during the post-operative period that do not result in repeat operations or treatment for complications;
- Treatment for post-operative complications that require a return trip to the operating room, catheterization lab, or endoscopy suite;
- Immunosuppressive therapy for organ transplants; and
- Critical care services (CPT codes 99291 and 99292) unrelated to the surgery in which a seriously injured or burned patient is critically ill and requires constant attendance of the surgeon. Append modifier 24 to these unrelated critical care services (see Table 2, above).
Payer Variations
While Medicare does not require modifier usage by hospitalists providing medically necessary services on surgical cases, some private payers do. Their electronic claim systems may not differentiate services by non-surgical specialists, requiring all physicians to append the appropriate modifier depending on the reason and timing of the service (see “Key Modifiers” below). TH
Carol Pohlig is a billing and coding expert with the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia. She also is on the faculty of SHM’s inpatient coding course.