tosborne
Contributor
I am having an issue with CPT code 69210 (Removal impacted cerumen (separate procedure), 1 or both ears). My issue is this; my physician removed impacted ear wax from the right ear only. The description of this code states 1 or both ears; my Medicare contractor instructed me that since this is a bilateral code that if the procedure was performed on only 1 ear, then modifier 52 would need to be appended with modifier RT. This doesn't look correct to me and the rep was unable to locate an actual article as hard proof that this is how this should be coded out and billed. I found an article from CMS stating that modifier 52 would be used for partial removal of ear wax. I am very confused about this. Do I bill the 69210 with modifier 52 RT or just the code 69210 even though this was only done on 1 ear? Any help is greatly appreciated!!!! 