tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2004 Issue 8

Our Experts Respond: What Makes a Postoperative Complication 'Unrelated'?

When deciding whether you should separately report postoperative wound care during the global period of another procedure, you must first decide if the reason for the surgery and the reason for the postoperative care are the same. Our May 2004 cover story, "2 Questions to Ask Yourself When Reporting Postoperative Infections," generated many reader responses questioning what, exactly, makes a postoperative complication "unrelated" to a previous surgery. For instance, a Wisconsin subscriber suggested, "You should not report modifier -24 (Unrelated evaluation and management service by the same physician during a postoperative period) for postoperative visits for post-surgical infection...

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