Thoracic Surgery Billing Services From The OR To The Office.

Thoracic surgeons operate in the hospital, round on inpatients and follow up in the office. Every one of those services is a professional claim that depends on hospital records, team roles and the global period. We keep them connected.

Discuss Your Surgical Billing See How Team Roles Are Billed

Professional billing only
Co-surgeons and assistants
Hospital records reconciled

Where the work happens, where the claim startsIllustrative

Hospital Operative notePathologyInpatient visitsDischarge summary

Your office ConsultsFollow-up visitsProfessional claim

The hospital bills its facility claim. Your surgeons' professional claim depends on records that live in the hospital's system.

Your SurgeonsSign the operative note

A surgeon consulting with a patient, a chest scan on the monitor behind them

Where The Service Happened Shapes The Claim.

The same procedure pays differently in a facility and in your office, and inpatient versus observation status changes the place of service on the claim. We take status from the hospital record, not the schedule.

Setting	Place of service	What to confirm
Inpatient hospital	21	Admission status on the date of service
Outpatient hospital, on campus	22	Observation versus inpatient status
Outpatient hospital, off campus	19	Which hospital department provided the service
Emergency department	23	Consult documentation and decision for surgery
Your office	11	Whether the visit falls inside a global period

The Surgical Team, Billed By Role.

Thoracic cases often involve more than one surgeon. Each role has its own modifier, its own payment rules and its own documentation.

Primary SurgeonBills the procedure with the full global period. The operative note must describe exactly what was done.

Co-SurgeonsTwo surgeons, usually of different specialties, each perform distinct parts of one procedure. Each documents their own portion and bills the same code.

80 · 81 · 82 · AS

Assistant At SurgeryA physician who assists uses 80, or 81 for minimal assistance, or 82 in a teaching hospital when no qualified resident is available. PAs, NPs and CNSs use AS. Some procedures do not allow assistants at all.

Teaching PhysicianWhen residents take part, the teaching physician's presence for the key portions must be documented for the service to be billed.

Hospital Days Inside The Global.

Most major thoracic procedures carry a 90-day global period. Routine post-operative rounding is included, but some hospital services are still separately billable when documented.

Included

Routine Post-Op Rounding

Daily inpatient visits related to the surgery are part of the global payment and are tracked, not billed.

Unrelated Critical Care

Critical care unrelated to the surgery can be billed during the global period. Medicare uses modifier FT, and the note must show why it is unrelated.

57 · 78 · 79

Decisions And Returns

The consult where surgery is decided, a return to the OR for a complication, or an unrelated procedure each carry their own modifier.

Hospital Charges, Reconciled To Your Schedule.

Hospital work is easy to miss: a weekend consult, a second procedure added in the OR, a day of rounding nobody entered. When you share your surgery schedule and hospital list, we reconcile them against charges entered and follow up on anything missing.

Where your surgeons already have access to the hospital system and approve its use, we work from there. Otherwise your team supplies the records.

Weekly reconciliation

Cases on the surgery scheduleMatched to charges

Consults and inpatient visitsMatched to charges

Operative note not yet signedAsked your team

Pathology pendingHeld, then billed

Illustrative. No real patient or claim data.

Medical Billing Or Full RCM?

Medical Billing

Your team keeps registration, eligibility and authorizations. We bill professional services from hospital and office records, apply team-role modifiers and follow every response. Coding can be added.

About Medical Billing Services →

Full RCM

We also check eligibility, manage surgical authorizations and code every service, with credentialing included, which matters when surgeons hold privileges at several hospitals.

About Full RCM →

We bill your surgeons' professional services only. Hospital facility claims are billed by the hospital.

Questions Surgical Practices Ask.

Please do not send patient records through the website.

A thoracic surgeon in scrubs reviewing a tablet in a hospital corridor

Do You Need Access To The Hospital System?

Only where your surgeons already have it and approve its use. Otherwise your team supplies the operative notes and hospital records we need.

How Do You Handle Co-Surgeon Cases?

Each surgeon bills the same procedure with modifier 62 and documents their own portion. We check that both notes support the split before billing.

Is Inpatient Rounding After Surgery Billable?

Routine post-operative rounding is included in the global payment. Visits for unrelated problems, and unrelated critical care, can be billed when documented that way.

What About Pathology Results?

Where the final diagnosis depends on pathology, we hold the claim until the report is available.

Can You Work Old Unpaid Surgical Claims?

Yes, as a separate Old A/R Recovery engagement. We review each claim's history first; timely filing and appeal deadlines may limit what is recoverable.

Talk Through Your Surgical Billing.

Tell us where your surgeons operate, how records reach billing and your payer mix. Please do not send patient records through the website.

Professional claims from hospital records
BAA signed before any patient-data access
Medical Billing or Full RCM