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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Coding Tips:

5 Major Add-On Codes Can Ease Your Cranial Procedures Coding

Published on Fri Jan 27, 2012

Never ignore the add-on procedure in a craniotomy.When reporting cranial procedures, you typically only need to consider one principal component: the craniotomy. Since cranial procedures are often complex, you may very often need to report additional procedures and techniques. Read on to know the add-on codes you can frequently report for your neurosurgery billing. Report Microdissection Only Once Per SessionWhen your surgeon uses the operating microscope, you report the microdissection code +69990 (Microsurgical techniques, requiring use of operating microscope [List separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) in addition to the code of the primary craniotomy procedure. You do not bill multiple units of 69990 in an operative session. Regardless of how many times your surgeon uses the operating microscope in a particular session in the OR, you report 69990 only once. "In addition, report the microdissection code 69990 immediately after the craniotomy code to enhance the likelihood of [...]
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