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99024

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code99024
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🩺 CPT 99024 - Postoperative Follow-up Visit

📋 Core Data

  • Code: 99024

  • Short Description: Postoperative follow-up visit

  • Long Description: 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.

  • Service Type: Medicine / Evaluation & Management (Tracking Code)

  • Anatomy: General / Site of Surgery

💰 Valuation & Fee Schedule (2025 Estimates)

Warning

Non-Payable Code This code has $0.00 reimbursement and 0.00 RVUs. It is purely a tracking code used to document that a service occurred without generating a charge.

  • wRVU (Work RVU): 0.00

  • Global Period: XXX (The code itself doesn’t have a global period; it is used inside the global period of other procedures).

  • Assistant Payable: No (Modifiers 80/81/82 not allowed).

  • Bilateral Status: N/A (Does not apply).

🏥 Clinical Context

Definition

A visit performed by the operating surgeon (or a provider of the same specialty in the same group) to check on a patient during the Global Surgical Period (010 or 090 days) of a procedure. Since the payment for routine post-operative care is “bundled” into the payment for the surgery itself, this code allows the provider to report the encounter for legal, clinical, and administrative tracking without triggering a bill that would be denied as “inclusive.”

Typical Clinical Scenarios

  • Wound Checks: Inspecting incisions for signs of infection or dehiscence.

  • Suture/Staple Removal: Removing closure materials (unless performed under anesthesia in the OR).

  • Cast Changes: Routine cast changes (though supply codes may sometimes be billed separately depending on payer).

  • Results Discussion: Discussing pathology reports from the surgery.

  • Pain Management: Adjusting post-op pain medications.

📝 Coding & Billing Guidelines

1. When to Use (The “Global” Rule)

  • Inclusive Period: Use 99024 only during the defined global period of the surgery:

    • 010 Days: Minor surgeries (e.g., I&D, simple repairs).

    • 090 Days: Major surgeries (e.g., Appendectomy, Joint Replacement, Cataract Surgery).

  • Same Provider/Group: Only applies if you (or your partner covering for you) did the surgery. If a different doctor in a different practice sees the patient for the wound, they bill a standard E/M (e.g., 99213) because they were not paid for the global package.

2. Documentation Requirements

Even though it is $0, documentation is vital for medicolegal defense.

  • SOAP Note: “Patient doing well, incision clean/dry/intact, sutures removed, return PRN.”

  • Date of Surgery: It is helpful to reference the original surgery date (e.g., “POD #10 s/p Appendectomy”).

3. Reporting Complications

  • Typical Complications: Minor infections, pain, or swelling are part of the global package. Use 99024.

  • Return to OR: If a complication requires a return to the operating room (e.g., hematoma evacuation), do not use 99024. Use the specific surgical code with Modifier 78.

4. Transfer of Care (Modifier 55)

  • If a surgeon performs the procedure but transfers post-op care to a different provider (e.g., Cataract surgeon transfers to local Optometrist), the receiving provider bills the surgical code with Modifier 55 (Post-operative management only). They do not bill 99024 for the individual visits; they bill the surgical code once to cover the span of care.

🔗 Related Codes

  • Standard E/M: 99212, 99213, 99214 (Use these after the global period expires).

  • Modifiers:

    • Modifier 24: Unrelated E/M during global period (Use this on a 9921x if the patient comes in for a different problem, e.g., Flu symptoms 2 weeks after knee surgery).

    • Modifier 79: Unrelated procedure during global period.

⚠️ Common Denials / Pitfalls

  1. Usage Outside Global: Do not use 99024 if the global period has expired (e.g., Day 91 of a 90-day global). You are throwing away revenue; bill the appropriate E/M code (e.g., 99213).

  2. Unrelated Problems: Using 99024 when the patient presents for a totally different issue (e.g., “I’m here for my post-op knee check, but also my ear hurts”).

    • Correction: Bill 99024 (internal tracking) AND 99213-24 for the ear infection.

  3. Productivity Tracking: Some administrators undervalue 99024 because it has 0 RVUs, but it is essential for tracking “Total Encounters” and proving the surgeon is servicing the surgical contracts.

  4. Supply Billing: You generally cannot bill for an E/M (99024 is the proxy), but you can often bill for supplies used during the visit if your contract allows (e.g., special dressings, casting materials) using HCPCS Level II codes.

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