General Surgery Coding Alert

Automatically appending modifier 52 could be costing you hundreds. When your surgeon works with another physician during a procedure, you can face major coding challenges. If you don't coordinate your coding with the other physician's coder, both doctors could lose money and face audits. Learn how to correctly code for these shared procedures with this real-world case study. Review the Surgical Case Scenario: A urologist and a general surgeon performed surgery on a patient. The urologist did the orchiopexy and performed the opening and closing. The general surgeon performed an inguinal hernia repair. Coding dilemma: Which codes should each physician report, and what modifiers should the coders use, asks Betsie Wilson, CPC, professional fee coordinator and charge capture surgery team lead at University of Washington Physicians in Seattle, who presented this case study. No Bundle Means Two Codes CPT and the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) do not bundle the two [...]