Wiki Global Period?-We have a physician

[pscott]

We have a physician who often performs skin excisions with stitches,
but does not take them out until after the global period has ended.
Does anyone else have this happen? How do you code it?
Thanks!

 

[Stephanied6]

Removing the sutures are part of the surgery package. The only time you can charge for removal of sutures is if you take the patient to the OR and it is preformed under anesthesia. See codes 15850-15851. If the patient has another issue at the time of the office visit then I would code the appropriete E&M code. If the patient is coming in only for the removal then your Dr. is taking a chance of a negative audit by using billable E&M codes for that visit and the visit should be coded as post op 99024. Hope this helps.