You Be the Coder:
Two Surgeons, Distinct Services
Published on Mon Apr 01, 2002
Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
Question: If one of our surgeons performs an open reduction with internal fixation (ORIF) on a fractured ulna and another one of our surgeons does the harvesting of the bone graft (but did not assist with the ORIF), should I append modifier -62?
Michigan Subscriber
Answer: The CPT description for modifier -62 (Two surgeons) states, "When two surgeons work together as primary surgeons performing distinct part(s) of a procedure, each surgeon should report his/her distinct operative work by adding modifier '-62' to the procedure code ... ."
In this case, each surgeon acted as the primary surgeon for a component of the total service, one surgeon performing the repair and the other surgeon harvesting the graft.
Because each surgeon performed a distinct part of the procedure, each will report 25405 (Repair of nonunion or malunion, radius OR ulna; with autograft [includes obtaining graft]) with modifier -62 appended.
