Orthopedic Coding Alert

This deletion could add $69 to your practice's bottom line--but make sure you adhere to this criteria. If claims involving fluoroscopy, anesthesia, and disc procedures often land on your desk, then you should pay attention to the more than 200 orthopedic edits included in the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) version 16.1, which went into effect April 1. That's a fairly big chunk of the "2,054 new edit pairs, with 1,947 modifier indicator changes" you'll find in CCI 16.1, says Frank Cohen, MBB, MPA, of MIT Solutions, Inc., in Clearwater, Fla. Don't be caught with a denial because you've overlooked these changes. Here's the lowdown, broken into deleted edits, new non-mutually exclusive edits, and mutually exclusive edits. Deleted Edits Give New Coding Opps Good news: A few deleted edits in CCI 16.1 could mean reimbursement for additional services. Until now, using fluoroscopic guidance during hip and knee arthrography was considered standard [...]