One of our patients was seen by two providers of different specialties at our office on the same day during the post-op period for spinal surgery and it seems like it was about the same underlying condition, though one was considered a new patient appointment since the patient had never seen the new provider before. If the new, different specialty, provider was treating the pain associated with the underlying condition, would that count for a new patient encounter? It doesn't seem like it would. I've already got the established encounter coded as post-op to review an X-ray taken the same day, but I'm concerned about the new patient encounter with the different specialty provider. Should that also be coded as post-op or can the new patient visit still be coded as a new patient visit or something else entirely?
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