Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Hold Off Separately Reporting Fluoro

Question: When our surgeon performs spinal fusions, he often dictates using fluoroscopic guidance (and sometimes biplane fluoroscopic guidance) for accurate positioning of instrumentation. I dont see any CPT code specific to fluoroscopic guidance for this purpose. Would I use 76000?

n

North Carolina Subscriber

Answer: No, you should not report 76000 (Fluoroscopy [separate procedure], up to 1 hour physician time, other than 71023 or 71034 [e.g., cardiac fluoroscopy]). Payers consider fluoroscopic or plain radiographic imaging for screw placement included in (bundled into) the instrumentation codes (range). You cannot separately report this service.

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