Determining DOS for Surgical package

 Date(s) of Service

Physicians, who bill for the entire global surgical package or for only a portion of the care, must enter the date on which the surgical procedure was performed in the “From/To” date of service field. This will enable A/B MACs (B) to relate all appropriate billings to the correct surgery. Physicians who share postoperative management with another physician must submit additional information showing when they assumed and relinquished responsibility for the postoperative care. If the physician who performed the surgery relinquishes care at the time of discharge, he or she need only show the date of surgery when billing with modifier “-54.”

However, if the surgeon also cares for the patient for some period following discharge, the surgeon must show the date of surgery and the date on which postoperative care was relinquished to another physician. The physician providing the remaining postoperative care must show the date care was assumed. This information should be shown in Item 19 on the paper Form CMS-1500. See the related implementation guide for where to show this information on the ASC X12 837 professional claim transaction format.



 Care Provided in Different Payment Localities

If portions of the global period are provided in different payment localities, the services should be billed to the A/B MAC (B) servicing each applicable payment locality. For example, if the surgery is performed in one state and the postoperative care is provided in another state, the surgery is billed with modifier “-54” to the A/B MAC (B) servicing the payment locality where the surgery was performed and the postoperative care is billed with modifier “-55” to the A/B MAC (B) servicing the payment locality where the postoperative care was performed. This is true whether the services were performed by the same physician/group or different physicians/groups.