# Post Operative visit outside global period



## pattisandlin (Jul 21, 2015)

If a specialty physician (ENT) performs a T/A and Ear Tube Placement and sees the patient back for "post op visit" one month after surgery and only mentions the ear tube placement which has a 10 day global period.  Can the provider bill an E/M visit for this since it is outside the global period but is the initial post operative visit?


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## sivagurulingam (Jul 21, 2015)

pattisandlin said:


> If a specialty physician (ENT) performs a T/A and Ear Tube Placement and sees the patient back for "post op visit" one month after surgery and only mentions the ear tube placement which has a 10 day global period.  Can the provider bill an E/M visit for this since it is outside the global period but is the initial post operative visit?



Hi,

We can bill the E/M service because the specialist saw the patient for the post op follow after the global period.


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## thomas7331 (Jul 21, 2015)

E/M outside the global period can be billed, though some practices may choose not to as a courtesy to the patient, especially if it happened to be due to scheduling issues.  Incidentally, CMS has proposed eliminating the global periods altogether because the billing practices of different providers vary so widely on this that it makes more sense to itemize everything rather than trying to bundle the payment into global packages.


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## mitchellde (Jul 21, 2015)

My concern here is if the ear tube placement is only a mention, how will you have enough elements for a visit level.  The parts pertaining to the T&A are global.


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