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Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Repair of Lacerated Ovary

Published on Sat Jan 01, 2000

Question: What is the correct code for repair of a lacerated ovary? After an exploratory laparotomy, the patient was found to have a ruptured corpus luteum cyst. There was no cyst removed because it had already ruptured. I cannot find a code for the repair of the ovary.

Annette Brehl
Michigan Physician Services
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Answer: Submit this procedure using 58999 (unlisted procedure, female genital system [non-obstetrical]) and include documentation of what was done. You should value the procedure at a rate similar to 49000 (exploratory laparotomy, exploratory celiotomy with or without biopsy[s] [separate procedure]). Your insurer may well look at the situation and consider it an exploratory laparotomy (49000) anyway, but since there was actual work done on the ovary, try the unlisted procedure code and see what the carrier says.
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