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Orthopedic Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Describe Bone Length Study With 76040

Published on Sun Sep 12, 2004

Question: How should I report a long leg x-ray that includes films of the hip, knee, ankle and foot? Our physician suggested 73592, but it doesn't seem right.

Michigan Subscriber
 
Answer: You didn't state your patient's age, so 73592 (Radiologic examination; lower extremity, infant, minimum of two views) may be appropriate, but only if the patient is an infant. If you performed the study on both lower extremities to examine leg length discrepancy, you probably performed a bone length study, otherwise known as a "scanogram." Report 76040 (Bone length studies [orthoroentgenogram, scanogram) for this service, because this code describes a single view of both lower extremities.
 
If the patient has a multi-joint disorder and you shoot single views of two or more joints, report 76066 (Joint survey, single view, two or more joints [specify]) instead.
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