Question:

I’ve heard that Medicare will be eliminating the global period and soon I can bill for post-op visits. Is this true?

Answer:

In the calendar year 2015, Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed an elimination of the zero day global period in 2017 and the 90 day global period in 2018. Under this proposal, post-operative visits would be separately reported. However, Medicare has decided not to go forward with this proposal and will instead evaluate the appropriateness of the current value of post-operative visits as part of the global package. This means that the current global surgery rules, which bundle post-operative visits, still apply. Watch the Medicare website and look for KZA Alerts for updates on this issue.