Hi Merry-
The initial podiatrist does have hospital privileges, at the same hospital that the wound care center is at, and did do the surgery on an outpatient basis there. Ten days later, during a post-op visit in their office, the initial podiatrist did not like the way the surgical site looked, so sent the patient from their office to the wound care center, where my doctor just so happened to be working that day. My doctor made the decision to admit the patient, and did emergency surgery immediately. My assumption, and it is only an assumption, is that the patient could not wait for the initial podiatrist to finish office hours and have surgery later that day, it had to be done ASAP, so therefore, my doctor had to do it, since they were already at the hospital. From there, the patient was now my doctors patient, and all subsequent care/surgery has been done by them.
We have no notes from the initial podiatrist, I am just going on what my doctor told me, and what I can see from the hospital notes since the patient was admitted. I wonder if I am over-thinking this, and no modifier is needed on the first surgery my doctor did at all. The only thing the two doctor share is that they are both podiatrists in the same town. They do not practice together, do not share any EIN/NPI numbers, etc.