Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Example 1: A patient experienced cerebral seizures and underwent testing lasting for 14 hours using a 16-channel portable EEG. You should code for this procedure using 95953 (Monitoring for localization of cerebral seizure focus by computerized portable 16 or more channel EEG, electroencephalographic [EEG] recording and interpretation, each 24 hours).

Example 2: A patient's testing lasted 11 hours. In this case, you should bill using the appropriate monitoring code -- 95953 again -- and append modifier 52 (Reduced services) to indicate that the monitoring lasted less than 24 hours. Finally, you-ll indicate the actual number of hours, as well as including other documentation explaining the details of the procedure.