Wiki Co-surgery for an add on code...Help!

[amatlack]

I have a situation, I code for both spine and neuro surgeons our neuro often do spine surgery. I have a neurosurgeon that performed a fusion with laminectomy, one of our spine surgeons scrubbed in to co-surgeon only on the instrumentation CPT 22842 due to medical necessity. My software system will not release this code stating that this is not a stand alone code and a primary code must be listed with this code. The orthopaedic surgeon only worked on the instrumentation, so to imply another code would be incorrect. Is there any way to bill this add on code or do we eat the instrumentation for the Ortho. I am at a loss on this one. We are billing this to Uniform medical under BCBS. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Ann Matlack, CPC
Olympia Wa

sigh...

 

[jdemar]

I use an 82, they will pay for an assitant, not co-surgeon for the instrumentation.