Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: The patient has pain related to her end stage osteoarthritis of her midtarsal joints. The podiatrist made an incision over the affected joints in front of the patient’s ankle. He dissected down through subcutaneous tissue, preserving the nerves and veins. He then retracted the muscle to gain access to the joints, where he cut the joint capsule and entered the joint. He removed all of the dead tissue from the joint cavity. He brought the bones of the joints in close proximity and fused three joints with K-wire. According to the documentation, the podiatrist fused three joints. Which CPT^® code should we report for this procedure?

Arkansas Subscriber

Answer: You should report 28730 (Arthrodesis, midtarsal or tarsometatarsal, multiple or transverse) for this procedure. You would report 28730 when the podiatrist fuses multiple joints, as the descriptor for this code specifies.

Note: You should report 28730 only once, even though the podiatrist fused multiple joints. Since the code descriptor includes the term “multiple,” you do not need to list it more than once or append any modifiers.