Wiki Modifiers for Anesthesia

[beachgrl62]

I have been coding Anesthesia for almost 4 years and we basically had to teach ourselves through trial and error since there are so few resources out there for information. This may seem like an odd question, but here goes...
What is the sequence that you enter your modifiers for anesthesia? This has never been an issue until the new 33 and PT. One of our coders that enters anesthesia charges found a bulletin that stated these new (to anesthesia) modifiers has to be placed first and the QS has to be second. Has anyone encountered this issue? We are not having any luck in getting these through. Thanks for your help!

 

[enancy79]

33 - PT Modifiers

We have found that the 33 modifier is correct for anesthesia services. The modifier PT is for the surgeon only and caused our claims to deny. We have listed it as the second modifier, using QZ or AA primary.

 

[dalaimama]

No, we still do the QZ or AA first. Everything I'd found indicated that's correct, they always go first.

But I was not under the impression the PT was surgeon only? My understanding is that we use that when the screening turned diagnostic, i.e. polyps found/removed, etc..

I know Medicare was having issues they were working on where they were denying even though they want the codes used..and there are threads in here about that. I'm not altogether sure if they've been resolved yet.

 

[LisaAlonso23]

Per the Federal Register, PT is a valid modifier on anesthesia claims when a polyp is removed during a colon screening.

 

[akj]

I place the PT or 33 in last place with no issues from the carriers.