Wiki help with knee surgery

[amartinez1]

The scenario is:
synovectomy done in the patellofemoral joint
Debridment of articular cartilage at the patella
Chondroplasty in the medial femor condyle
Lateral menisectomy

Is it correct to say that the menisectomy 29881, and the 29877 for the chondroplasty in the medial compartment, can be coded?
What gets me is the patella joint since the synovectomy 29875 was done along with debridment 29877 which code should be billed for since it was done in the patella?

 

[Bella Cullen]

The scenario is:
synovectomy done in the patellofemoral joint
Debridment of articular cartilage at the patella
Chondroplasty in the medial femor condyle
Lateral menisectomy

Is it correct to say that the menisectomy 29881, and the 29877 for the chondroplasty in the medial compartment, can be coded?
What gets me is the patella joint since the synovectomy 29875 was done along with debridment 29877 which code should be billed for since it was done in the patella?

I would code this as
29881 for Lateral menisectomy
G0289 or 29877 for Medial chondroplasty (I use G0289 cause most if not all insurances recognize the G code and is billable with 29881)
As for the patella, if synovectomy (29875) was only done for visualization then I would code for the debridement (G0289-59). If synovectomy was more extensive then I would code for that (29875-59). So in this case it's all in how dictation is, but you cannot bill both for the same compartment.