General Surgery Coding Alert

Capitalize on Assigned Payment Values For New Repair Codes

The new CPT 2009 codes you-ll have for laparoscopic hernia repair will mean that you-ll no longer have to leave it up to your payers to determine how much your surgeons earn for these procedures. When you were forced to use an unlisted code, you were also forced to let the payer determine your payment. Now you-ll be able to calculate the reimbursement you can expect on the new codes. Take a look at this chart to see the assigned relative value units (RVUs) for each of the six new codes and the payment amounts (unadjusted for geographic location). We-ve calculated the unadjusted payments using the now official 2009 conversion factor of $36.0666. (See the article "Medicare Lowers Conversion Factor to $36.0666 for 2009" on page 21 for more about this year's conversion factor.)  
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