Critical Care for General Surgery and Trauma Surgeons

• Critical care provided as a stand alone service is based on the seriousness of the patient, the types of interventions, and time.
• Critical care provided by a surgeon to a patient in a global period for procedures with a 10 or 90 day global period, must also follow the rules for critical care, with the added complication of following global surgical rules.
• In 2022, CMS stated it will continue to allow post op critical care during a global period of the critical care is unrelated to the organ system/surgical procedure performed.

Critical care services provided by a surgeon before, on the day of, and after a major surgical procedure are complicated by the payment rules for the global surgical package. Payment for the global surgical package includes all of the typical services provided by a surgeon, or by the surgeon’s same specialty partners in their group.

So, in addition to mastering the rules for critical care, there is an added filter to consider. Is the critical care part of the global payment? When can it be billed in addition to the global payment for the surgery?

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