Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Improve your reimbursement chances by applying modifier 58 in this situation. When your surgeon targets the brain or spine with stereotactic radiosurgery (also called gamma knife surgery) to treat multiple lesions over multiple sessions, you need to know two crucial things: what stereotactic radiosurgery codes to use and how many units to include. Take this five-question challenge to see whether you've got stereotactic radiosurgery intricacies down. Hint: If you want to pass with flying colors, follow this expert advice: you'll report "61796 through 61799 depending on simple or complex lesions and add a second code for additional lesion treatment," says Nancy Chicolte, CPC, senior coding specialist for Johns Hopkins University's Department of Neurosurgery in Baltimore. Read 5 Statements, Then Choose True or False Question 1: True/False -- If your neurosurgeon performs stereotactic radiosurgery on five simple lesions, you should report five units of 61796 (Stereotactic radiosurgery [particle beam, gamma ray, or [...]