Wiki Lap ventral hernia-old mesh removal

[kshell73]

Need a little advice please! If my Dr does a laparoscopic ventral hernia repair 49652 , and spends excessive time trying to free and then remove old mesh for the anterior abdominal wall, Can I bill for the removal of old mesh? I'm looking at 49402, but that looks like it would be an open procedure. 11008 states "for infection", which is not mentioned by the Dr. Any thoughts? Thank You!!

 

[aguelfi]

No you can't report it. It is included in the repair. The 11008 is for mesh at the skin level. You could append a 22 modifier to show the extra work, but your doctor needs to be specific on how much time was spent and exactly what the difficulty was. You may also want to consider 49659 unlisted since this was actually a recurrent repair and no specific code applies to what was actually performed.