Inpatient Facility Coding & Compliance Alert

Question: A cardiologist performs a pacemaker procedure on a patient in the hospital with a 90-day global period. He then visits the patient, during his hospital stay to treat another problem unrelated to the procedure. Is it appropriate to report the inpatient visit with modifier 24?

Maine Subscriber

Answer: You may report the inpatient visit with the applicable 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).

However, you must make sure to report the appropriate diagnosis code(s) as per the documentation. Do not make the mistake of reporting the same diagnosis code that triggered the global period for both the episodes.

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