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General Surgery Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Check Payer Bundling Rules Before Coding

Published on Tue Oct 27, 2009

Question: My doctor did a lap hernia repair and placed a mesh. While in there, he found an ovarian mass, so he called in an ob-gyn to do a salpingooophorectomy. After the ob-gyn finished, my doctor went back to close the patient. When he got back he didn't like the looks of the mesh placement -- as if it "dislodged" a bit with the other doc in there -- so he opened the patient, took out the mesh he had just placed, and repaired it again. I am thinking I can only code for what the physician completed, which would be the open hernia, but I don't want to miss anything. What should I report? Kentucky Subscriber Answer: First, you're on the right track with your thinking. You are correct that you should just code the open repair (as you would any other conversion from lap to open). So you would report [...]
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