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Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

CCI 16.1 Update:

Watch for Keratoplasty Bundles or Risk Losing Over $1000 in Pay

Published on Thu Mar 04, 2010

April also brings changes to your OCT and wound repair coding. If your practice has been performing the cutting-edge endothelial keratoplasty (EK) procedure, take care. Medicare's Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) clarifies what you shouldn't report with 65756 (Keratoplasty [corneal implant]; endothelial) if you want to receive pay for this service. CCI released version 16.1 in late March, revealing 2,054 new active pairs and 1,947 modifier changes, said Frank D. Cohen, MPA, MBB, senior analyst with MIT Solutions. CCI 16.1, which took effect for dates of service April 1, 2010, and beyond, specifies that 65756 is mutually exclusive with several other corneal transplant and reconstruction procedures: 65710 -- ... anterior lamellar 65730 -- ... penetrating (except in aphakia or pseudophakia) 65755 -- ... penetrating (in pseudophakia) 65780 -- Ocular surface reconstruction; amniotic membrane transplantation 65782 -- ... limbal conjunctival autograft (includes obtaining graft). As a Column 2 code, 65756 is also mutually exclusive with 65750 (Keratoplasty [...]
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