Wiki Patient Expires during Surgery

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a439927

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I am currently working on the Virtual Experience program through AAPC and have run into a situation that should be amazingly clear to me but I'm baffled. I have an E.R. chart to code and need some help. Patient is brought into E.R. with a gunshot wound to the chest. Patient is rushed to the O.R. to attempt life-saving procedures. Procedures listed are Bilateral thoracotomy, repair of cardiac wound x 23, repair of lung hemorrhage and exploratory laparotomy. Unfortunately, the patient expired while on the table. So my confusion is this....since the patient expired prior to the end of surgery, I feel as though these procedures should be coded with a modifier to indicate that they weren't "completed". But if a modifer is needed, what modifier to use? -52 for reduced services, -53 for discontinued procedure, or something I'm not even thinking about yet? I'd appreciate any input you can give me - I'm just over 100 charts (out of 800) from finishing and this one just has me bumfuzzled..:confused:
 
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a439927 said:
I am currently working on the Virtual Experience program through AAPC and have run into a situation that should be amazingly clear to me but I'm baffled. I have an E.R. chart to code and need some help. Patient is brought into E.R. with a gunshot wound to the chest. Patient is rushed to the O.R. to attempt life-saving procedures. Procedures listed are Bilateral thoracotomy, repair of cardiac wound x 23, repair of lung hemorrhage and exploratory laparotomy. Unfortunately, the patient expired while on the table. So my confusion is this....since the patient expired prior to the end of surgery, I feel as though these procedures should be coded with a modifier to indicate that they weren't "completed". But if a modifer is needed, what modifier to use? -52 for reduced services, -53 for discontinued procedure, or something I'm not even thinking about yet? I'd appreciate any input you can give me - I'm just over 100 charts (out of 800) from finishing and this one just has me bumfuzzled..:confused:
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I would definitely use modifier -53 on each CPT that didn't get completed. It is very likely the insurance will reimburse the full 100% allowed amount for those procedures. Good Luck!
Jenna
 
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