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Orthopedic Coding Alert

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Routine Hip Follow-Up May Require 2 Codes

Published on Sat Feb 17, 2007

Question: Which diagnosis code should we report for a patient who comes in for a routine hip replacement follow-up that includes an x-ray? Kansas Subscriber Answer: When a patient presents for an annual follow-up and is symptom-free, you-ll typically report V67.09 (Follow-up examination; following other surgery) and V43.64 (Organ or tissue replaced by other means; joint; hip). Watch out: If the surgeon documents that the patient is still healing from the surgery, you should report code V54.81 (Aftercare following joint replacement) instead. Tip: You should choose an appropriate E/M code (99211-99215, Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of an established patient ...) to report the physician's service.
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