Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Question: We recently performed an excision of an ovarian lesion, 56303, on a patient without insurance. The physician gave the patient a 25% discount for the surgery but made no financial arrangement for postoperative care. We usually rely on the insurance carrier for the patient to tell us what the global period is for a procedure performed. Since there is no insurance involved, are we bound by a set global period or can we bill separately for post-op follow-up visits to the office?

Barbara Walter, TITLE
Advanced Medical Billing, Avon, NJ

Answer: CPT has no set global period and assuming this was not a Medicare patient, you may determine what you believe to be a normal follow-up period based on the physicians assessment or on community standard if you know what that is. If you believe that the surgery you charged the patient for did not include follow-up care based on the fee you charged, you certainly bill for the follow-up visits.