• What is a minor surgical procedure according to the teaching rules?

• What is a minor surgical procedure according to the teaching rules?

re: • What is a minor surgical procedure according to the teaching rules?

A minor procedure is one that take only a few minutes (5 minutes or less) or designated as minor procedures by CMS to complete, e.g., simple suture, and involve relatively little decision making once the need for the operation is determined, the Teaching Physician must be present for the entire procedure in order to bill for the procedure. . Any procedure that takes fewer than five minutes to complete is considered a minor procedure. In order to bill under the teaching physician guidelines, the teaching physician must be present during the entire procedure. For endoscopic procedures, the Teaching Physician must be present during the entire viewing. The entire viewing starts at the time of insertion of the endoscope and ends at the time of removal of the endoscope. Viewing of the entire procedure through a monitor in another room does not meet the Teaching Physician presence requirement. The Teaching Physician must document his/her presence or participation in the procedure. If the Teaching Physician personally performs the entire procedure without a resident present and personally documents his/her own procedure note, a separate presence statement is not required as part of the documentation.

re: • What is a minor surgical procedure according to the teaching rules?

A coder could also reference the post-op days assigned to the CPT® code. A minor procedure would be one that is NOT a 90 day global.

Annette M Roberts, CPC