Modifier “-25” is used to facilitate billing of evaluation and management services on the day of a procedure for which separate payment may be made.
It is used to report a significant, separately identifiable evaluation and management service by same physician on the day of a procedure. The physician may need to indicate that on the day a procedure or service that is identified with a CPT code was performed, the patient’s condition required a significant, separately identifiable evaluation and management service above and beyond the usual preoperative and postoperative care associated with the procedure or service that was performed. This circumstance may be reported by adding the modifier “-25” to the appropriate level of evaluation and management service.
Claims containing evaluation and management codes with modifier “-25” are not subject to prepayment review except in the following situations:
• Effective January 1, 1995, all evaluation and management services provided on the same day as inpatient dialysis are denied without review with the exception of CPT Codes 99221-9223, 99251-99255, and 99238. These codes may be billed with modifier “-25” and reviewed for possible allowance if the evaluation and management service is unrelated to the treatment of ESRD and was not, and could not, have been provided during the dialysis treatment;
• When preoperative critical care codes are being billed for within a global surgical period; and
• When A/B MACs (B) have conducted a specific medical review process and determined, after reviewing the data, that an individual or group have high statistics in terms of the use of modifier “-25,” have done a case-by-case review of the records to verify that the use of modifier “-25” was inappropriate, and have educated the individual or group as to the proper use of this modifier.
Critical Care
Critical care services provided during a global surgical period for a seriously injured or burned patient are not considered related to a surgical procedure and may be paid separately under the following circumstances.
Preoperative and postoperative critical care may be paid in addition to a global fee if:
• The patient is critically ill and requires the constant attendance of the physician; and
• The critical care is above and beyond, and, in most instances, unrelated to the specific anatomic injury or general surgical procedure performed.
Such patients are potentially unstable or have conditions that could pose a significant threat to life or risk of prolonged impairment.
Modifier -24 (post-operative) or -25 (same day pre-operative) is used to indicate that the critical care service is unrelated to the procedure.