Postoperative Pain Block by Surgeon

Question:

This question may fall outside the interventional pain questions typically submitted to KZA.

Our surgeon is performing a total knee replacement and a postoperative pain block on a Medicare patient. Can we report the block in addition to the total knee arthroplasty procedure?

Answer:

Thank you for your submitted question!

Both CPT and CMS consider postoperative pain management by the physician performing the surgical procedure to be included in the global surgical package and not separately reportable.

Based on the submitted scenario, the surgeon's appropriate coding is 27447 for the total knee arthroplasty.

*This response is based on the best information available as of 5/22/25.