General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: Our surgeon scheduled an initial repair of an incarcerated inguinal hernia for a 35-year-old male patient. The pre-op lab work revealed severely elevated blood sugar, so our surgeon admitted the patient early (June 3) to control the diabetes before performing surgery on June 6. Can we charge for the E/M for the hospital admission and subsequent visits that occurred prior to the surgery using a modifier such as 59, 79, or 24? Also, can we list modifier 57 on the date of surgery even though it was planned several weeks earlier?Virginia SubscriberAnswer: Yes, you can charge for the E/M service involved in the hospital admission and subsequent hospital visits your surgeon made prior to surgery. Modifiers don't apply to the E/M codes that you report prior to surgery, because the diagnosis for those services is uncontrolled diabetes, not the inguinal hernia surgery.Do this: Bill the hospital admission (99221- 99223, [...]