Wiki Arthroscopic synovectomy of the knee

[bethh05]

I thought I read somewhere that if a arthroscopic synovectomy of the knee is performed for visualization you cannot bill for that procedure. Can someone please clarify and where I can find the info? Thank you.

 

[rkmcoder]

I did a quick google search and found this AAOS web source:

http://www2.aaos.org/aaos/archives/bulletin/apr05/code.asp

Search through the document for 'visualization'. What it indicates is if synovial tissue is removed for visualization purposes, it is included in the other code (in the web example, codes 29888 and 29889).