Orthopedic Coding Alert

Question: If our physician sees a patient in the office and dictates that the patient does not have a fracture, but he's going to treat it as a fracture, can I bill a fracture care code? The physician believes that because he treats it as a fracture, then billing fracture care makes the most sense. Can you advise? New York Subscriber Answer: You should not report a fracture care code if the patient does not have a fracture. Instead, you should report the appropriate office visit code (such as 99201-99215), as well as a casting code and codes for the casting supplies.