Radiology Coding Alert

Question: I’m working on a report for a bilateral two-view X-ray of the hands and wrists. Does this qualify as code 77077?

Michigan Subscriber

Answer: Before diving into coding options, you’ll need to confirm a few details in the dictation report. First, you’ll want to determine whether you’ll be coding two views of each respective bilateral joint, or two total bilateral views. In either format, you should not consider code 77077 (Joint survey, single view, 2 or more joints (specify)) as a viable option. Code 77077 is most typically performed on joints of the hand when evaluating for osteoarthritis. Furthermore, this is a code with a bilateral surgery indicator of “0,” which means that it’s not eligible for bilateral billing as it does not fit the criteria for a bilateral procedure.

Assuming you’re coding bilateral two-view hand and wrist X-rays, this means that you should be reporting the following codes:

• 73120 (Radiologic examination, hand; 2 views)
• 73100 (Radiologic examination, wrist; 2 views).

You may either append modifiers RT (Right Side) and LT (Left Side) or modifier 50 (Bilateral Procedure) to each code to indicate that the physician imaged both sets of wrists.