Wiki CNP's perfomring a saphenous vein harvest

[rykin7609]

Got a question. Been questioning the CABG reports that state that the CNP had the saphenous vein harvested from the patient before the surgeon comes into the OR.

First, I know that we cannot bill for 33508-80 when the CNP is "assisted" by the surgeon, but what I am wondering and cannot find a clear cut answer to is, can a CNP bill a 33508, no modifier if they do the endoscopic vein harvest prior to the surgeon coming into the OR? Is this even a code I can bill for them?

 

[jewlz0879]

I would not bill it without a modifier. We bill like this:

33508-AS

HTH

 

[rykin7609]

Not exactly the answer I was looking for. I know about the modifiers 80 and AS.

What I am wondering is if the CNP does all the endoscopic vein harvest on his/her own BEFORE the surgeon even steps into the OR, are we able to bill 33508 (without any assistant modifiers) for the CNP???

The CNP did all the work so should I be billing it as such? No modifiers on the 33508.....

 

[mitchellde]

agreed it should be billed as exactly what it is the vein harvest by the CNP. I do not know if this allowed or not but it is what was done. The biggest question is the bundleing issue, is the vein harvest inclusive to the CABG per CCI edit, if so then no I would not bill it.