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General Surgery Coding Alert

Modifier Quiz:

Check Your 58/78 Knowledge With These Scenario Answers

Published on Thu Mar 15, 2012

Compare your coding from the quiz on page 25 with our experts' solutions.Read on to see how your answers stack up -- and how much money your choices cost (or saved) your surgeon.Solution 1: Partial Mastectomy Following Biopsy Code the breast biopsy as 19101 (Biopsy of breast; open, incisional). The correct diagnosis code for the findings of infiltrating ductal carcinoma is 174.2 (Malignant neoplasm of upper-inner quadrant of female breast).For the return to surgery for a partial mastectomy, you should bill 19301 (Mastectomy, partial (e.g., lumpectomy, tylectomy, quadrantectomy, segmentectomy). The second surgery occurs during the postoperative period of the initial procedure, 19101, which has a 10-day global period. That means you'll need to append modifier 58 (Staged or related procedure or service by the same provider during the postoperative period) to 19301.Hint: You can find the global days for a surgical procedure by selecting "payment policy indicators" as the type of [...]
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