Primary Care Coding Alert

Your 93000, 51701 pay hinges on employing this tool. If you missed the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) 15.1's blanket of edits, be prepared to battle for electrocardiogram (ECG) payment. Since April, Medicare has denied ECG code 93000 on three claims that also involved a procedure, reports Sherry Morshedi, RHIT, practice manager for Benny J. Green, MD, PA, in Little Rock, Ark."Medicare advised me to use modifier 59 on the ECG." Experts walk you through using this tool to correctly unbundle an ECG (93000) or in/out cath (51701) from another procedure's surgical package. Recognize Medicare's Extended Surgical Package CMS has expanded its global surgical package inclusions. First, CCI 13.3 included catheter codes in most minor and major procedure codes. Then, to close a loophole that may have allowed physicians to report a routine pre-surgery ECG separately from a procedure, CCI 15.1 placed a blanket bundle on most surgery codes, minor and [...]