General Surgery Coding Alert

Question:

If our surgeon is the admitting physician for surgery, can we charge for hospital discharge services if we have appropriate documentation of the service?

Washington Subscriber

Answer:

No, you cannot charge for hospital discharge (such as 99238, Hospital discharge day management ...) in addition to the surgical procedure for which your surgeon admitted the patient. Hospital discharge is part of the typical postoperative care during the global period, which is always bundled.

Exception: With certain surgical procedures that have a zero-day global -- such as 36000 (Tracheostomy, planned [separate procedure]) -- if the patient is admitted to the hospital after surgery and then discharged the next day or days later, you can bill for the discharge services. Remember to also bill for hospital days if a patient is admitted to the hospital after a zero-day global procedure and stays a few days.