Question:
I understand that I cannot bill for an H&P if there is a global because it is included in the surgery. Can we bill for an H&P if there is no global period? California Subscriber
Answer:
You cannot separately bill for the history and physical (H&P) your physician performs even for a procedure with a zero-day global period. Even when there is no global period associated with a code, there is an inherent E/M built into the fee for the code and as such this H&P is not a billable service.
Bottom line:
Every code's global package includes the preoperative work performed by the physician before the procedure or service. Therefore, unless the E/M service is significant and separately identifiable, you cannot bill it.
Unless the office visit is medically necessary to reevaluate a condition, such as diabetes or hypertension, that may affect the proposed procedure, you should not bill for the visit that's strictly for obtaining pre-procedure information. Your pre-op H&P becomes an "administrative" H&P, especially if your physician made the decision to perform the procedure at another encounter.
Exception:
Some payers, however, will cover preoperative consultation (99241-99245,
Office consultation for a new or established patient, which requires these three key components...) for patients for whom the payer considers it medically necessary (such as patients who have a comorbidity that may complicate a surgery). Check with your payer to see if it has a local coverage determination on this matter. If you feel the visit is medically necessary, your primary or first diagnosis for the preoperative visit should be in the V72.8 (
Other specified examinations) series, such as V72.84 (
Preoperative examination, unspecified).
-- The answers to the
Reader Questions
and You Be the Billing Expert
were reviewed by Barbara J. Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC, CENTC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CHCC.