Podiatry Coding & Billing Alert

Question: Can someone tell me the difference between codes L4360 and L4361? My vendor told me that L4360 does not use air and L4361 does use air, but I don’t see that in the code descriptions in my HCPCS book.

Texas Subscriber

Answer: In this case, your vendor told you wrong information. Look at codes L4360 and L4361 with their code descriptors:

• L4360 (Walking boot, pneumatic and/or vacuum, with or without joints, with or without interface material, prefabricated item that has been trimmed, bent, molded, assembled, or otherwise customized to fit a specific patient by an individual with expertise)
• L4361 (Walking boot, pneumatic and/or vacuum, with or without joints, with or without interface material, prefabricated, off-the-shelf)

As per the above descriptors, both L4360 and L4361 are “pneumatic,” which means they both use air. For an example of a “non-pneumatic” walking boot, which does not use air, you can look to L4387 (Walking boot, non-pneumatic, with or without joints, with or without interface material, prefabricated, off-the-shelf).

When it comes to the differences between codes L4360 and L4361, your provider will customize a L4360 to fit it specifically to the patient. They can do this by molding, trimming, or bending, for example. If your provider makes these adjustments, he should state why the customization was made. On the other hand, no customizations are made to a L4361 walking boot.