General Surgery Coding Alert
Use New Prostate Ablation Code
Question: I’ve heard we can no longer use code C9747, so how should we report prostate ablation with focused ultrasound? Tennessee Subscriber Answer: HCPCS Level II 2021 deletes code C9747 (Ablation of prostate, transrectal, high intensity focused ultrasound (hifu), including imaging guidance), as you mentioned. You’ll find a new Category 1 code in CPT® 2021 that describes the procedure, which you can use in place of C9747 going forward. The code is 55880 (Ablation of malignant prostate tissue, transrectal, with high intensity-focused ultrasound (HIFU), including ultrasound guidance). In this procedure, the surgeon uses a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) device inserted through the rectum to ablate malignant prostate tissue under ultrasound guidance. The surgeon places the HIFU transducer near the prostate lesion and focuses heat-generating sound waves to destroy the malignant tissue. You should not separately bill for the ultrasound guidance.
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