Otolaryngology Coding Alert

Question: My otolaryngologist dictated the following operative report: "I reduced the right inferior turbinate. I made two parallel incisions on the turbinate's medial surface from anterior tip to the turbinate's mid one-third posterior aspect. I performed a dissection and removed mucosa."
 
He thinks that reporting 30140 for the surgery is inappropriate because he didn't perform a resection. Which code should I use instead?

Louisiana Subscriber

Answer: For a turbinate reduction, you should report 30140 (Submucous resection turbinate, partial or complete, any method) appended with modifier -52 (Reduced services). When an otolaryngologist reduces, rather than resects, a turbinate, CPT indicates that you should still use 30140, but with -52 to indicate the reduced service.

- Answers to Reader Questions and You Be the Coder were provided by Jami Lucas, executive director at the American Association of Otolaryngic Allergy in Washington, D.C.; Betsy Nicoletti, CPC, a consultant with Helms & Company, a physician practice management company in Concord, N.H.; Teresa Thompson, CPC, CCC, president of TM Consulting in Carlsburg, Wash.; and Richard H. Tuck, MD, FAAP, a nationally recognized speaker on coding, compliance and reimbursement.