Wiki 2011 changes global period

[mlsstnt@aol.com]

I need to double ck myself of what I am reading today my new CPT 2011 book finally arrived I do billing for occupational medicine Indiana workers comp now it states for 12001 thru 12018 global period 000 highlighted in red ink (medicare only) but does that apply for all commerical payors I know YYY stands for carrier determines and i cant find that listed anywhere in those codes so i need to verify i'm reading and understanding this correctly thank you Melissa

 

[dballard2004]

Melissa,

I will wager an opinion here.

You are correct that effective January 1, 2011, the global period changed for simple laceration repairs from 10 days to 0 days per CMS.

The global period can vary from payer to payer and not all payers follow CMS guidelines. I would recommend consulting with your commerical payers for further guidance on this matter to see what global they assign to simple laceration repairs.

Hope this helps and again this is my opinion.

 

[RebeccaWoodward*]

While I agree with Dawson, I wanted to mention one other thing. The RVU's for the simple repairs have been decreased. Seems only fair that a low E/M could be charged for the suture removal...to make up the difference.

It's worth mentioning that 11043/11044 also have zero global days. I found about 18 changed codes. If anyone has a complete list of the global day changes, I would love to have a copy.