General Surgery Coding Alert

Be sure you follow modifier rules to prevent denials. Don't miss out on $20 per procedure when your surgeon performs central venous (CV) access device placements. If your physician uses fluoroscopic or ultrasonic guidance during the placement, you should separately report that service. Here's how. Choose Between +76937 and +77001 If your surgeon uses ultrasound guidance, report +76937 (Ultrasound guidance for vascular access requiring ultrasound evaluation of potential access sites,documentation of selected vessel patency, concurrent realtime ultrasound visualization of vascular needle entry,with permanent recording and reporting [List separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) in addition to the CV access device placement code, says John F.Bishop, PA-C, CPC, MS, CWS, president of Tampa,Fla.-based Bishop and Associates. Caveat: Don't report +76937 if your physician uses ultrasound only to identify a vein and mark the skin. Code +76937 if he must use ultrasound for actual real-time guidance of needle passage into [...]