CPT Code 99024: Postoperative follow-up visit billing guide

Key takeaways

CPT code 99024 reports postoperative follow-up visits included in the global surgery package, carrying $0 reimbursement from Medicare

CMS mandates 99024 reporting only for large practices in nine states on about 293 procedures. Everyone else can report it voluntarily, and CMS encourages that too.

Skipping 99024 reporting can raise audit flags and hurts data quality, even though the code itself brings no revenue

Pabau’s claims management software and digital forms capture postoperative visit documentation automatically, so no follow-up gets missed

CPT code 99024 reports a postoperative follow-up visit that’s already covered by the global surgical package, so Medicare pays $0 for it separately. CMS mandates this reporting for some practices and encourages it everywhere else, because the data shapes how CMS values surgical care nationally.

Good medical billing workflows treat no-pay codes with the same discipline as high-value claims.

This guide covers the code’s official description and how the global surgery package determines when it applies. It also covers documentation requirements, CMS reporting rules, and the audit exposure created by under-reporting.

CPT code 99024: Definition, description, and code details

CPT code 99024 is the designated reporting code for postoperative follow-up visits that are included within the global surgical package. The American Medical Association (AMA), which maintains the CPT code set, classifies 99024 under the Miscellaneous Medicine Services section of the CPT codebook.

The official AMA descriptor reads: “Postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason(s) related to the original procedure.”

Two details in that definition matter for coding. The visit must relate to the original procedure. The operating surgeon, or a supervising provider in the same practice, must perform it during the recognized global period.

Understanding the global surgery package and global period

The global surgery package is a CMS payment policy. It bundles the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care for a surgical procedure into one payment. When a surgeon bills a procedure code, that fee covers routine follow-up care for the entire global period. CPT code 99024 is the mechanism for reporting those bundled follow-up visits.

The global period length is assigned per procedure by CMS through the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). Every surgical procedure code carries one of three global period indicators. That assignment sets how many days of follow-up care fall inside the bundled payment.

Global period types: 0-day, 10-day, and 90-day

One important nuance: the global surgery rules described here apply specifically to Medicare. Commercial payers may have different global period policies or may not apply a global package at all. Never assume a commercial payer follows Medicare’s global period structure without verifying the payer contract. Conflating Medicare rules with commercial payer rules is a common and costly billing error.

When to report the postoperative follow-up visit code

Report CPT code 99024 when a provider performs a follow-up visit that relates directly to a surgical procedure and falls within that procedure’s global period. The visit must be with the operating surgeon or their practice.

• The procedure has a 10-day or 90-day global period and the follow-up visit occurs within that window
• The reason for the visit relates to the original surgery such as wound inspection, suture removal, or monitoring for expected postoperative complications
• The operating surgeon (or a partner in the same group practice) sees the patient and documents the encounter in the patient record
• The visit would otherwise be coded as an E/M service but is being performed within the global package, making 99024 the appropriate tracking code
• The payer is Medicare or a Medicaid program that follows Medicare global surgery rules (verify commercial payer contracts separately)

Wound care visits within the global period

Wound care practices are among the most frequent users of CPT code 99024. When a surgeon performs a debridement or wound repair with a 10-day or 90-day global period, the follow-up visits inside that window fall under 99024. This includes dressing changes, wound assessments, and suture removals performed by the operating provider’s practice.

Practices running surgical or wound care specialties should configure their documentation templates to flag the global period automatically at the time of procedure entry. That single setup step stops staff from accidentally billing a separate E/M code for a visit the global package already covers.

If a wound care visit goes beyond routine follow-up, the provider may bill an E/M code with modifier -24 instead. That applies, for example, when a new problem unrelated to the surgery comes up. Modifier -24 flags an unrelated condition during the postoperative period, a different scenario from standard 99024 reporting.

Reimbursement and fee schedule

CPT code 99024 carries $0 reimbursement under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. CMS confirmed this through the MPFS, which assigns a status indicator of “bundled” to 99024. No work RVU, practice expense RVU, or malpractice RVU is assigned. Use the CMS Physician Fee Schedule lookup tool to confirm current values for any specific procedure or locality.

Practices that submit 99024 through a clearinghouse get back an electronic remittance advice (ERA) showing a $0 allowed amount and $0 payment. That’s expected, not a denial. The claim is adjudicated at zero, not rejected.

Keep the ERA on file. It shows the visit was reported and that the practice acknowledged the bundled status. Practice management software like Pabau can route 99024 no-pay claims through the same clearinghouse workflow as revenue-generating claims. That keeps ERA reconciliation in one place across every claim type.

Why reporting $0 codes still matters

Reporting a $0 code feels like extra work with no payoff, but CMS still collects 99024 data to track postoperative care patterns nationally. That data informs global period policy and helps CMS judge whether current global period lengths reflect the care surgeons provide.

Mandatory claims-based reporting of 99024 has applied since July 1, 2017, but only to a specific group. It covers practices and groups of 10 or more practitioners. That group spans nine states: Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Within those practices, it applies to roughly 293 specified high-volume procedure codes with 10- or 90-day global periods. Outside that scope, CMS treats 99024 reporting as voluntary, though it actively encourages every practice to report it.

There is still a practical reason to report voluntarily. CMS and its contractors watch the ratio of surgical claims to postoperative follow-up reporting. A surgeon who performs dozens of 90-day global procedures but never reports any 99024 visits can create a statistical outlier in that ratio. An outlier like that can prompt a closer look at the underlying surgical claims, even outside the mandatory-reporting states. See the audit risk section below for more detail.

Documentation requirements for postoperative care

Even though CPT code 99024 produces no payment, the visit still requires documentation. Auditors reviewing global period compliance look for evidence that each reported 99024 visit happened and related to the original procedure. Incomplete records are treated as missing records in an audit context.

Every postoperative visit documented under 99024 should include the following elements in the patient record:

• Date of visit and confirmation it falls within the assigned global period
• Reference to the original procedure by CPT code, date of surgery, and surgeon name
• Subjective findings: patient-reported symptoms, pain level, functional status
• Objective findings: wound appearance, vital signs if taken, mobility or range of motion where relevant
• Assessment: provider’s clinical interpretation of the postoperative progress
• Plan: next steps, instructions given to the patient, follow-up appointment scheduling
• Provider signature and credentials confirming the visit was performed by the operating surgeon or qualifying partner

Good superbill documentation makes this easier by pre-populating the original procedure details at each follow-up encounter. Routing these visits through a structured 837 claim file with a clearinghouse also captures claim-level metadata. That includes the service date, rendering provider NPI, and place of service, all useful for audit defense.

CMS global period reporting requirements

CMS has clear expectations for how practices handle postoperative visits under the global surgery package. The reporting rule, though, is narrower than many billing teams assume. Mandatory claims-based reporting under MACRA Section 523 applies to a specific slice of practices. It covers practices and groups of 10 or more practitioners in nine states, on about 293 specified 10- and 90-day global procedures.

Outside that mandate, reporting 99024 is voluntary, but CMS guidance on claims-based data reporting encourages every practice performing Medicare-covered surgical procedures to report it anyway. Consistent reporting feeds CMS’s national database on surgical care patterns and supports policy analysis for every specialty, not just the states where it’s required.

The reporting requirement has practical consequences for how practices handle their revenue cycle management around surgical episodes. The practice should:

• Track the global period end date for every surgical procedure at the time of procedure billing
• Report 99024 for each qualifying postoperative visit. Do this whether or not the practice falls under the mandatory-reporting rule.
• Separate visits for unrelated conditions using modifier -24, not skip reporting altogether
• Confirm that only the operating surgeon’s practice reports 99024 for a given episode. If the patient sees a different provider for an unrelated issue during the global period, that provider may bill separately.
• Keep records linking the original procedure to each 99024 visit. HIPAA’s administrative standards call for six years, but check your state’s medical-record retention law, since many require longer.

Audit risk and common billing errors

Under-reporting CPT code 99024 is one of the most common compliance mistakes in global surgery billing, even where reporting isn’t mandatory. Multiple coding authorities note that consistent non-reporting draws attention, though enforcement varies by contractor and audit type. The more immediate risk is statistical. When CMS’s zone program integrity contractors or recovery audit contractors (RACs) review a practice’s surgical billing, the absence of 99024 claims creates an anomaly. That anomaly can prompt a closer look at the underlying surgical claims that do generate revenue.

Strong denial management and proactive medical billing compliance processes both depend on accurate 99024 reporting as a foundation. Here are the most frequent errors billing teams make:

Related CPT codes to know

CPT code 99024 sits within a broader ecosystem of postoperative and global-period-adjacent codes. Coders working in surgical practices need to understand when 99024 applies and when a different code is correct. Use the FastRVU lookup tool to verify current RVU and reimbursement values for any related code at your locality.

Wound debridement codes 97597, 97598, and 11042-11047 create a gray area. The operating surgeon may bill them during the global period. Whether they’re separately billable then depends on whether the work goes beyond what the global package already covers. Each scenario requires individual review against the payer’s global package policy and the denial codes in medical billing that typically follow incorrect bundling decisions. The AAPC Codify CPT lookup provides bundling and unbundling guidance for wound care codes adjacent to the global surgery context.

How Pabau supports postoperative billing and documentation

Pabau’s claims management software supports the full 99024 reporting workflow. Clinical note templates can be configured for postoperative follow-up visits, prompting providers to capture every required element without relying on memory.

Digital intake forms collect patient-reported postoperative symptoms before the visit starts, feeding that data straight into the encounter note. Once the note is complete, the claim routes through billing with the 99024 code already assigned, based on the procedure type and global period status. That cuts the odds of a missed submission.

Postoperative visits get logged the same way whether Medicare pays $0 or a commercial payer pays in full. The billing team doesn’t have to remember which code applies on a given day.

Streamline postoperative billing from the first follow-up visit

Pabau connects clinical documentation, claims submission, and ERA reconciliation in one platform, so your team captures every 99024 visit automatically, without extra steps.

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Conclusion

CPT code 99024 is easy to dismiss because it never pays. Treating it as optional is still a mistake for most practices, not just the ones CMS requires to report it. The visit still needs a complete note, and the reporting habit still protects your surgical claims from unwanted audit attention.

Build 99024 into your postoperative workflow as a standard step rather than an afterthought. To see how Pabau handles surgical billing workflows end to end, book a demo with the team.

Continue your research

Want to understand how claims move through the system? Our medical billing explainer walks through how claims are submitted, adjudicated, and reconciled from first appointment to final payment.

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Looking for clearinghouse options for surgical claims? How a medical claims clearinghouse works explains the role of clearinghouses in routing and validating no-pay and revenue claims alike.

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