Medical Billing and Reimbursement Practice Exam

Global periods define how long postoperative care is bundled into the price of a surgical CPT code. The 0-day, 10-day, and 90-day durations indicate how many days after the procedure routine post-op care is considered part of the surgical package. Shorter global periods are for less invasive procedures, longer periods for more extensive surgeries. This matters for billing because if a service occurs within the global period and is part of the normal postoperative care, it is not billed separately; it’s included in the surgical payment. Once the global period ends, postoperative care can be billed separately if it’s still needed or if it’s unrelated to the original procedure. For example, with a procedure that has a 0-day global, the day-of-surgery postoperative activity is included, but a visit on a later day would generally be billed separately. With a 10-day global, routine postoperative visits within the first 10 days are included in the surgical code, and after day 10 you’d bill separately for related postoperative care if needed. With a 90-day global, most postoperative care within 90 days is bundled, with separate billing only for anything outside that window or for unrelated issues.