Ophthalmology and Optometry Coding Alert

Visual Fields:

92081-92083 With Modifier 50? Not So Fast

Careful with those modifiers and dx codes, or you could be heading towards VF denials. Ophthalmologists usually spend a lot of time and effort helping patients who they suspect might have glaucoma. When a patient returns to your office for visual field examinations, can you code and bill the tests individually per eye? Can you bill for another visit to the office -- including the actual test, verifying the results, and discussing them with the patient? How do you determine which diagnosis code to report for glaucoma suspects? Our experts provide the answers. Appending 50? Not So Fast When deciding whether to bill for services "unilaterally," per eye, or "bilaterally," for both eyes, the first thing to do is read the code description in CPT®. All of the visual field testing codes have in their description the phrase "unilateral or bilateral": 92081 -- Visual field examination, unilateral or bilateral, with interpretation and [...]
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