Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Count on preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative services and care.

Below are some important and routine services that you will typically consider part of global surgical package: Preoperative visits: You include preoperative visits in global period when these visits are after your provider has made a decision to operate. This typically implies the day before the day of surgery for major procedures and the day of surgery for minor procedures;

Intraoperative services: The intra-operative services that you will count as part of global surgical package are those that are considered usual and necessary part of a surgical procedure;

Postoperative visits: You include follow-up visits that the patient is asked to make during the postoperative period to monitor and support recovery from the surgery; Complications following surgery: You include any additional medical or surgical services that necessitate your provider performs in the postoperative period because of complications that do not require additional trips to the operating room;

Postsurgical pain management: Make note that any postsurgical pain management that your surgeon does is inclusive in the global surgical package. Supplies and miscellaneous services: Include all supplies in the global surgical package except for those identified as exclusions. Remember to count on some routine services like dressing changes; removal of any items like sutures, staples, tubes, drains, wires, casts and splints; care of incision(s); insertion, irrigation, and removal of intravenous lines, rectal and nasogastric tubes, and urinary catheters; and other similar services.

Resource note: These services included in the global surgical package are defined in Section 40.1 of the Claims Processing Manual (Pub. 100–04, Chapter 12 Physician/Nonphysician Practitioners).