I am new to gasto coding and have a question. It is my understanding we cannot bill for the pre op visit for a colonoscopy if it is done within 24 hours as the pre op is part of the colonoscopy service. But help me with these scenarios. The patient goes to the family doc because they are age 50+ and want their screening, the family doc refers them to the surgeon who then evaluates and does exam on the patient and schedules them for a screening colonoscopy in 2 weeks. Can we bill for the exam done by the surgeon since the colonoscopy is not scheduled for a couple of weeks out?

Second scenario, the patient went to see the surgeon for rectal bleeding, surgeon decides to do a colonoscopy in 2 weeks, he did an exam and ran blood work to verify his diagnosis. Can we bill for the surgeons visit? Does it make any difference if the patient went to see his family doc first and the family doc referred him to the surgeon for evaluation?

Thanks for any help you can offer I am trying to figure out when I can and cannot bill