Pre-Op Visit Reporting: Look to E/M Codes and 'V' Codes to Collect for Your Preoperative Clearance Visits

Why This Topic Matters

Preoperative clearance encounters have specific reporting considerations that differ from routine office visits and from the surgeon’s own global surgical services. Understanding the coding framework helps practices document these encounters consistently and prepare systems, superbills, and workflows for the ICD-10 transition.

Article Sections

1. Preoperative visit reporting basics

   Introduces how preoperative clearance visits are handled in relation to surgical services and why diagnosis coding differs for these encounters.

2. Example of a surgical clearance encounter

   Provides a general scenario involving specialty evaluation for clearance before surgery and discusses the types of diagnoses involved at a broad level.

3. Current surgical clearance diagnosis codes

   Summarizes the legacy diagnosis code set used for preoperative examinations before the ICD-10 transition.

4. ICD-10 preprocedural diagnosis codes

   Summarizes the newer ICD-10 diagnosis code set that replaces the older preoperative examination codes.

5. Transition timing and system updates

   Notes the need to update billing tools and workflows by the stated compliance date to reflect the newer code set.