June 6, 2019 Question: A patient comes to our office for a sacroiliac joint injection and is also requesting a cervical trigger point injections as he woke with a stiff neck. The physician evaluated the patient and performed a right SI joint injection and also injected 4 spots along the left trapezius. Fluoroscopy is used...
June 6, 2019 Question: My doctor did two adjacent tissue transfers, on the each leg of the patient. The ATT on the left leg was 6sq cm and the one on the right leg was 9sq cm. He wants to bill 14020 with modifier 50, but I don’t think that is correct. Help. Answer: CPT...
June 6, 2019 Question: I’ve been dictating CPT codes in the operative note so that my coder knows what to bill. Recently, we had an insurance company call us out because the codes we billed were not the same as the codes in the operative note. Now I am not sure what to do. What...
June 6, 2019 Question: I’ve been dictating CPT codes in the operative note so that my coder knows what to bill. Recently, we had an insurance company call us out because the codes we billed were not the same as the codes in the operative note. Now I am not sure what to do. What...
June 6, 2019 Question: A pathology report came back from a skin biopsy stating “compound dysplastic lesion with severe atypia. Re-excision recommended.” Should the diagnosis code be D48.5 for lesion of uncertain behavior of the skin be assigned, or a benign code since it does not state it is malignant? Answer: Since the pathology notes...
June 6, 2019 Question: We are in a state that must report CPT code 99024 to Medicare for the defined procedures. I perform the surgical procedure but one of my partners rounds for me in the hospital. Is it appropriate for my partner to submit CPT code 99024 even though I did the surgery? I...
June 6, 2019 Question: My surgeon uses the intraoperative ultrasound to assist with a brain tumor removal. I am billing 76998 with modifier 26 for the professional component. Sometimes we don’t get paid. Should I appeal these denials? Answer: No….actually, intraoperative ultrasound is included in the global surgical package for the neurosurgeon and should not...
June 6, 2019 Question: The surgeon reported an intestinal perforation caused by a trocar during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy due to extensive adhesions. He completed the cholecystectomy and also did a suture repair of one perforation of the small intestine. How is this reported? Answer: Iatrogenic, intraoperative complications that are repaired at the same operative session...
May 23, 2019 Question: What is the correct code for a tangential biopsy of the antihelical fold? I was going to bill 11102, but I was told that there are different codes in other sections of CPT for some biopsies. Answer: The correct code would be 69100, Biopsy external ear. As a bonus, this correct...
May 23, 2019 Question: My work RVUs are down this year. I do a lot of inferior turbinate submucous resection surgery and I code 30140 (Submucous resection inferior turbinate, partial or complete, any method). I noticed that the wRVUs for 30140 are now 3.00 and last year they were 3.57. This is a big hit...
