Wiki Florida Medicare trigger point injection for low back pain

[Raycooper123]

One of the ortho's in my group has been submitting charges for low back pain (M54.2) with cpt code 20552 for injection of trigger point. There is literally a picture of a back under code 20552 in the CPT code book with a line pointing to the low back which says "injection site"... however, Medicare and BCBS are denying the claims for improper diagnosis. A coder from another office suggested I use code 20610 but the physician is injecting a trigger point (muscle) NOT a joint.. Does anyone have any suggestion or advice??

THANKS!

 

[greatbiller]

The diagnosis code may be what is triggering the denial. M54.2 is for cervicalgia. Try M54.5 which is the correct ICD-10 for low back pain.