Can the nurse bill a 99211 procedure code for a dressing change?
A8. A dressing change is part of the global surgery package if performed within the global period of the surgical procedure and is not separately payable. If the dressing change happened outside of the global period, the provider would need to look for a more appropriate procedure code to reflect the service provided. Q9. Patient has a new lesion on the check; the physician has not seen patient before. The decision is to remove the lesion. Can the physician bill a separate new patient E/M in addition to the removal of the lesion? What documentation would you expect to see in order to use modifier 25 – significant, separately identifiable? Is modifier 57 appropriate? A9. Modifier 57 is only valid when the E/M is the decision for a major (090 global days) surgery. You could use modifier 25 if the visit was significant and separately identifiable. The documentation needs to show that the visit required a greater amount of work than is normally associated with the procedure. You can find m
