# Global days for the uninsured patient



## tlstaz6543 (Jan 26, 2012)

I know I have read this covered on here before but can't find it now.  

My question is, is it ok to bill for post op visits if the patient has no insurance or are they still legally entitled to the "post op global period".   I have people in our office wanting to charge no insurance patients for their visits after surgery but my opinion is that the global days are CODE based according to the AMA not the patient's insurance status.  They're trying to tell me that global days are part of the contract with the insurance company so if there is no insurance then there is no global.   Help? 

If you agree with me, do you know where I can find something in print backing me up?


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## mhstrauss (Jan 26, 2012)

tlstaz6543 said:


> I know I have read this covered on here before but can't find it now.
> 
> My question is, is it ok to bill for post op visits if the patient has no insurance or are they still legally entitled to the "post op global period".   I have people in our office wanting to charge no insurance patients for their visits after surgery but my opinion is that the global days are CODE based according to the AMA not the patient's insurance status.  They're trying to tell me that global days are part of the contract with the insurance company so if there is no insurance then there is no global.   Help?
> 
> If you agree with me, do you know where I can find something in print backing me up?



Here ya go 
https://www.aapc.com/memberarea/forums/archive/index.php?t-13738.html


My opinion is that charging uninsured patients for post-op visits is unethical; the surgical package is an AMA standard, not a payer standard. The Surgery Guidelines in the CPT book clearly state that the package includes typical post-op followup. Hope this helps!


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