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Orthopedic Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Multiple Finger Injections

Published on Tue Oct 01, 2002

Question: How should I bill Medicare when we do more than one finger injection on the same day? The diagnosis is usually 727.05 (Other tenosynovitis of hand and wrist) or 727.03 (Trigger finger [acquired]). Florida Subscriber Answer: The diagnoses you offered indicate that the orthopedist is probably injecting the tendon sheath or ligament, which would point to 20550* (Injection; tendon sheath, ligament, ganglion cyst). To show Medicare that the physician injected multiple digits, append the finger modifiers (-FA through -F9) to 20550 on separate line items.  
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