Wiki Does 20680 include bone autograft?

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adunlap23

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Hello,

The patient is status post wrist arthrodesis. She has a partial nonunion of the fusion site.

The doctor performed hardware removal and autograft of the nonunion.

After the hardware removal, the op report states "I curetted out the area where it was partial nonunion. I then used a Jamshidi needle over the Lister's tubercle and harvested a cancellous bone grafting in that region. I then packed this into the partial nonunion arthrodesis site. This resulted in good fill of the nonunion".

My question is, will the autograft be bundled with the hardware removal (20680) since it was not harvested from a separate incision?

-Ashley
 
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Per the AMA coding instructions in order to bill for harvested grafts, the graft must be taken from a separate incision. This was probably not removed from a separate site. Grafts taken from the same incision (operative area) are not reported separately.
 
Agree, Lister's tubercle is in the same location.
Was there anything else done in this case? Will they go back in later for another stage to re-do the fusion?
 
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