Orthopedic Coding Alert

You-ve got your work cut out for you when your orthopedic surgeon decides a patient with an elbow sprain needs surgery. But once you distinguish between 1) repair and reconstruction and 2) lateral and medial collateral ligaments, coding is a cinch.

CPT offers two repair codes for elbow collateral ligaments:

- 24343 -- Repair lateral collateral ligament, elbow, with local tissue

- 24345 -- Repair medial collateral ligament, elbow, with local tissue.

You have two other codes for reconstruction:

- 24344 -- Reconstruction lateral collateral ligament, elbow, with tendon graft (includes harvesting of graft)

- 24346 -- Reconstruction medial collateral ligament, elbow, with tendon graft (includes harvesting of graft).

If your surgeon doesn't specify whether he performed a repair or reconstruction, check the documentation for evidence of a graft. As the descriptors indicate, repair involves local tissue, and reconstruction involves a graft.

Tip: The graft harvest is included in the reconstruction codes, so you should not charge a graft harvest separately, says Heather Corcoran, coding consultant with CGH Billing in Louisville, Ky.

Protect yourself: Reconstruction is more common for chronic tears than for acute tears. But reconstruction is possible for an acute tear, so if you aren't certain, ask the surgeon whether he performed a repair or reconstruction.

Two likely ICD-9 codes for lateral and medial collateral ligament repair and reconstruction are 841.0 (Sprains and strains of elbow and forearm; radial collateral ligament) and 841.1 (- ulnar collateral ligament). So you need to know how CPT's "lateral" (24343, 24344) and "medial" (24345, 24346) match up with ICD-9's "radial" (841.0) and "ulnar" (841.1) collateral ligaments.

Radial/lateral: If the surgeon documents a torn "RCL" (radial collateral ligament) or-"LCL," he is referring to a torn lateral collateral ligament, says Denise Paige, CPC, billing manager at Torrance Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Group in Torrance, Calif.

That means you should pair 841.0 (radial) with 24343 and 24344 (lateral).

Ulnar/medial: Surgeons often refer to the medial collateral ligament as the "MCL" or "UCL" (ulnar collateral ligament), Paige says.

So 841.1 (ulnar) pairs with 24345 and 24346 (medial).

Tip: Your surgeon may also refer to a "Tommy John" procedure. This is a nickname for UCL reconstruction, says Paige, who worked with Frank Jobe, MD, who invented and first performed the procedure on major- league pitcher Tommy John.

Remember: Don't report 841.0 and 841.1 if they don't match the patient's documented diagnosis. For example, if the surgeon documents chronic instability, you should look to 718.82 (Other joint derangement, not elsewhere classified; upper arm).