How would you code/bill for a physician that is following a different physician’s patient in the hospital within the global period after a procedure ?

a) Yes you can bill the hospital visit because it is a DIFFERENT physician than the physician that performed the procedure and you can separately bill for monitoring the patient after surgery even though there is a global period. The global period only applies to the physician that performed the surgery.

b) No billing can take place because it is within the global period regardless of which physician sees the patient.

c) you should keep track and bill a 99024 as a zero charge.

I have always thought that the correct answer is b , but the neurosurgeon feels that a is correct. He frequently "follows" another surgeon’s patients when it is time to be on call and we are trying to decide whether or not we can submit the billing for the E&M codes he performs for monitoring the patients after their surgical procedure.

Thank you