General Surgery Coding Alert

Match up surgeon claims or risk missed payment. Watch your surgeon's op note for second surgeon signs -- did another surgeon assist with approach or closure, for instance? If so, you'll have to take some additional steps to gain fair payment. Look to Modifier 62 for Co-Surgeons When two surgeons work together to perform distinct portions of a procedure CPT identifies with a single reportable code, you'll need to access modifier 62 (Two surgeons). Suppose a neurosurgeon performs an anterior approach arthrodesis, and requests a general surgeon to expose the surgical area and close the patient following the procedure. The neurosurgeon performs the arthrodesis, along with related bone graft and instrumentation procedures. "When a general surgeon does the exposure for a spine case, [use] modifier 62," says Myra P. Anderson, CPC, CCAT, CPAT, coding educator with Ochsner Health System. "Both surgeons are performing distinct portions of the procedure," she notes. The [...]