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Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Discontinued Procedure

Published on Mon Dec 24, 2012

Question: A patient had cataract surgery, and in the middle of surgery something happened and the doctor was unable to complete it. Can I still charge?

California Subscriber

Answer: Modifier -53 (discontinued procedure) is the correct modifier to append if you have discontinued surgery. Anesthesia must have been administered to use this modifier. In addition, if there is a CPT code or codes that describe what was done prior to the procedure being discontinued, they should be used instead of the original surgical code with the -53 modifier.

As an example, if the physician performed only a retrobulbar injection, he or she would code 67500* (retrobulbar injection; medication [separate procedure, does not include supply of medication]). Or if the physician was able to remove the cataract but had to discontinue the procedure before placing the new lens, you would use 66850 [...]
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