Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: Suppose the cardiologist sees a patient in the hospital and performs a pacemaker procedure with a 90-day global. If he sees the patient to treat another problem unrelated to the procedure while the patient is still in the hospital from the procedure, can he report the inpatient visit with modifier 24?

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Answer: Report the inpatient visit with the appropriate E/M code, such as 99232 (Subsequent hospital care, per day, for the evaluation and management of a patient ...).

Then append modifier 24 (Unrelated evaluation and management service by the same physician or other qualified health care professional during a postoperative period).

Be sure to report the appropriate diagnosis code(s) based on the documentation.

Tip: You should follow the same approach for an unrelated office E/M during the global period, appending modifier 24 to the office visit code.