Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: A patient underwent a thyroidectomy in the morning. She was brought back to the operating room late the same evening for exploration and drainage of a hematoma in the neck. How should we code the exploration and drainage?

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Answer: The correct surgical code would be 21501 (Incision and drainage, deep abscess or hematoma, soft tissues of neck or thorax). This crosses to anesthesia code 00300 (Anesthesia for all procedures on the integumentary system, muscles and nerves of head, neck, and posterior trunk, not otherwise specified), with a base value of 5. Append modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) to 00300 to indicate this was a separate procedure from surgery earlier in the day.