Enter a CPT code to look up its Medicare global period, add the surgery date — get the exact window, and the modifier that unlocks billing for each scenario inside it. Billers also look for this as a post-op day calculator, a global surgery calculator or a surgical global calculator — same window, same math, no login.
Every code on the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule carries a global surgery indicator. CMS publishes it in the GLOB DAYS column of the national relative value file (the PPRRVU file), which it reissues each quarter. The lookup at the top of this page reads the 2026 October release, RVU26D, and covers 16,343 CPT and HCPCS codes. Of those, 3,771 carry a 90-day global period, 469 a 10-day period and 1,274 a zero-day period; 996 are add-on codes (ZZZ), 402 are left to the Medicare contractor (YYY), 17 are maternity codes (MMM), and the remaining 9,414 have no global concept at all (XXX).
The global days are only half of what decides payment on a surgical claim, so the lookup also returns the indicators that sit beside them in the same file: the pre-, intra- and post-operative percentages Medicare uses when care is split between physicians with modifiers 56, 54 and 55; the multiple-procedure indicator behind modifier 51 reductions; the bilateral indicator for modifier 50; and the assistant-at-surgery, co-surgeon and team-surgery indicators for modifiers 80–82/AS, 62 and 66. The split matters most in a hand-off. Take 27447: its package divides 10% pre-operative, 69% intra-operative and 21% post-operative, so when a different physician takes over the post-operative care, that physician bills 27447-55 and is paid the 21% post-operative share, while the surgeon bills 27447-54.
| Code | Global period | Pre / intra / post split |
|---|---|---|
| 10060 | 010 — 10 days post-op | 10% / 80% / 10% |
| 11042 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 11770 | 010 — 10 days post-op | 10% / 80% / 10% |
| 15839 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 71% / 19% |
| 17110 | 010 — 10 days post-op | 10% / 80% / 10% |
| 20610 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 22551 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 69% / 21% |
| 27130 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 69% / 21% |
| 27447 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 69% / 21% |
| 29827 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 69% / 21% |
| 29881 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 69% / 21% |
| 33990 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 43239 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 43659 | YYY — set by the Medicare contractor | — |
| 45378 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 46050 | 010 — 10 days post-op | 10% / 80% / 10% |
| 47562 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 9% / 81% / 10% |
| 49000 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 9% / 81% / 10% |
| 49505 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 9% / 81% / 10% |
| 62330 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 11% / 76% / 13% |
| 64483 | 000 — day of procedure only | — |
| 66984 | 090 — 1 day pre-op + 90 days post-op | 10% / 70% / 20% |
Select any code for its full indicator set. These are 2026 Medicare values: CMS can change a code’s global period in its annual rulemaking, so check the year of service before you appeal on an older claim, and check commercial payer policy separately, because commercial plans are not bound by the Medicare file.
CMS assigns every surgical code a global indicator that defines how much post-operative care is already paid for inside the surgical fee. Bill something inside that window without explaining why it is separate, and it denies as included. Bill it with the wrong explanation, and it either denies or creates an overpayment.
| Indicator | Window | Typical of |
|---|---|---|
| 000 | No post-operative period | Endoscopies, many diagnostic procedures |
| 010 | 10 days after the procedure | Minor surgery |
| 090 | 1 day before + day of + 90 days after | Major surgery |
| XXX | Global concept does not apply | Most E/M and diagnostic services |
| ZZZ | Inherits the primary procedure's period | Add-on codes |
| YYY | Set by the Medicare contractor when it prices the claim | Unlisted and contractor-priced procedures |
| MMM | Usual global period does not apply | Maternity and obstetric package codes |
The detail most people miss: a 90-day global period starts the day BEFORE surgery. That pre-operative day is inside the package, which is why an evaluation and management visit on the day before or day of major surgery is not separately payable unless it was the visit at which the decision for surgery was made — and that requires modifier 57.
Every one of these tells the payer a different story, and they are not interchangeable. This table is the whole job in one place.
| Scenario inside the window | Modifier | Restarts the global? |
|---|---|---|
| Unrelated E/M visit | 24 | No |
| Significant, separately identifiable E/M with a minor procedure | 25 | No |
| The visit where the decision for surgery was made | 57 | No |
| Staged or planned related procedure | 58 | Yes |
| Unplanned return to the OR for a related complication | 78 | No — and paid at a reduced rate |
| Unrelated procedure by the same physician | 79 | Yes |
The 58 versus 78 distinction is where the money is. Both involve going back to theatre. A planned, staged procedure is 58 — full payment, and a new global period begins. An unplanned return for a complication is 78 — reduced intra-operative payment, and the original global period continues unchanged. Coding a complication as staged inflates payment and starts a window that should not exist; coding a staged procedure as a complication gives away money you earned.
A missing or wrong modifier on a service that was genuinely separate is usually a corrected claim rather than an appeal — the documentation already supports it, the claim simply failed to say so. Check you are inside the correction window with our timely filing and appeal deadline calculator, and if you are unsure which modifier the scenario calls for, the modifier decision tree walks through it. Where the denial is a bundling decision you disagree with, CO-97 and CO-236 cover the appeal route.
Global indicators are published in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and are updated annually — verify the current year's indicator for your code rather than relying on memory, and note that commercial payers may apply their own global policies that differ from Medicare's.
The 090 global period is the one people most often need to calculate, and it is the one most often counted wrongly. A major surgery package runs across 92 calendar days, not 90: one day before the operation, the day of the operation itself, and the 90 days that follow. If you count 90 days forward from the surgery date alone you will land one day short of the true end date and may write off a visit that was still inside the package — or bill one that was not.
Two further rules decide the end date in practice. The count is in calendar days, so weekends and public holidays are included; there is no business-day adjustment. And the clock is tied to the date of the procedure, not the date of discharge, so a patient who stays in hospital for a week after a 090 procedure is already seven days into the post-operative period on the day they leave. Enter the surgery date above and the calculator applies all three rules for you, returning the end date, the days still remaining, and the modifier that applies to each scenario inside the window.
Related tools: Modifier Decision Tree · Timely Filing & Appeal Calculator · E/M Code Calculator · All free tools
Written by Hassan Raza Awan
Founder — LegitMedBilling & IT Solutions
Hassan has 4+ years of hands-on U.S. medical billing experience — working claims, denials, credentialing, and payer follow-up for practices across the United States. Every guide he publishes is written from real remittances and payer behavior, not theory.
Want the rules rather than the dates? Global period in medical billing — what 000, 010 and 090 cover and the six modifiers that unlock billing inside the window.
Correct global modifiers, tracked windows and clean staged-procedure coding — we handle surgical billing for practices across the United States.
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