As we are all aware, Medicare uses data and statistics to determine a whole host of things, including payment rates - a subject very near and dear to our billing hearts. Naturally, it is incumbent upon us to provide accurate and meaningful data to CMS, and that brings us to today's topic:CMS's Global Surgery Data Collection initiative.
No, Global Surgery does not mean we all are going to get operated on. Although, given the state of the world today, a collective lobotomy might be a good thing. When a patient has a surgical procedure, there may be a global billing period associated with the procedure. If there is a global period, then all post-operative visits are, by definition, inclusive to the procedure and must be reported by billing the visit under CPT code 99024 ( “Postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure.”).
While practices with less than 10 practitioners are not required to report, we encourage everyone to participate, in the interest of providing accurate data to CMS. Note the data collection for this study applies only to practices located in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, or Rhode Island.
The reporting period began July 1st, 2017 and in our reading of the literature from CMS, we did not see an end date. At any rate, for more information on this particular data collection initiative, check out the CMS Global Surgery Data Collection website. A list of qualifying procedure codes for the use of CPT code 99024 can be downloaded from the CMS page and if you have any questions (and who doesn't?), there may be an answer for you on the FAQS sheet. If you need to ask Medicare a question about this particular topic, e-mail your question to:
MACRA_Global_Surgery@cms.hhs.gov
On a practical level, just make sure you are entering a charge for each office visit. You can check this by using the Rexpert menu option Daily Activity -> Missing Charge Reports -> Scheduler. This is actually a good idea for all practices in every state - just one missed charge a week can add up significantly by the end of the year.
Feel free to contact us with any questions. If you need assistance adding CPT code 99024 to your billing process, contact Client Services via the Feedback button in Rexpert.
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| How data gets processed |
While practices with less than 10 practitioners are not required to report, we encourage everyone to participate, in the interest of providing accurate data to CMS. Note the data collection for this study applies only to practices located in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, or Rhode Island.
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| Hmm...this calls for CPT code 99024 |
MACRA_Global_Surgery@cms.hhs.gov
On a practical level, just make sure you are entering a charge for each office visit. You can check this by using the Rexpert menu option Daily Activity -> Missing Charge Reports -> Scheduler. This is actually a good idea for all practices in every state - just one missed charge a week can add up significantly by the end of the year.
Feel free to contact us with any questions. If you need assistance adding CPT code 99024 to your billing process, contact Client Services via the Feedback button in Rexpert.
