Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Question: Can you explain the rules for 62263? Can you report this code for each adhesiolysis treatment?

Nebraska Subscriber

Answer: No. You should count the days and not the adhesions.

You should report codes 62263 and 62264 (Percutaneous lysis of epidural adhesions using solution injection (eg, hypertonic saline, enzyme) or mechanical means (eg, catheter) including radiologic localization (includes contrast when administered), multiple adhesiolysis sessions; 1 day) to describe the entire series of injections/infusions spanning the total number of treatment days.

“Code 62263 is not reported for each adhesiolysis treatment but should be reported once to describe the entire series of injections/infusions spanning two or more treatment days,” according to CPT^® guidelines. Similarly, “Code 62264 describes multiple adhesiolysis treatment sessions performed on the same day,” CPT^® adds.

Report 62263 only once regardless of the number of days in total, as long as it is more than one day. The same applies to 62264, except that it includes all treatments for one day only. “This pair of codes distinguishes the patient in whom the catheter is placed and removed the same day compared with the patient in which the catheter remains for at least one night,” says,  Gregory Przybylski, MD, past chairman of neurosurgery and neurology at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey.