Reader Questions:
Save 99238-99239 for 0-Day Globals
Published on Wed Apr 07, 2010
Question: My cardiologist admitted a patient and performed a procedure on the 23rd of the month. On the 24th he reviewed the patient, went over everything, and discharged the patient. Am I correct that I can charge for the hospital discharge (such as 99238) by the same doctor for a patient during the global period of the procedure? Alaska SubscriberAnswer: Unfortunately, you may be incorrect. If you are in a 90-day global period of a procedure (as would be the case with pacemaker and defibrillator surgeries) or if the discharge is on the same day as the surgery, you cannot separately report the discharge codes: 99238-99239 (Hospital discharge day management ...). In these cases the discharge is included in the procedure coding and global period.Exception: With certain cardiology procedures that have a zero-day global if the patient is admitted to the hospital after surgery and then discharged the next day [...]
