Wiki question on Colonoscopy coding

[Colliemom]

I haven't coded for GI for a little while now, but is this correct?

https://www.supercoder.com/my-ask-an-expert/topic/biopsy-by-snare-ablation-and-emr

Specifically the part where Supercoder advises the person that "45385 will be coded twice with one of them appended with modifier XS in order to indicate two seperate lesions removed from same site (i.e. proximal ascending colon)."

I thought if you removed two separate lesions by the same method (snare or biopsy) that you could only bill the code once? Has this changed?

 

[blckjnpr]

No, Supercoder is incorrect and you have it right. The description for 45385 shows (s) after tumor/polyp/lesion denoting one or more, so this code would only be billed once even if 2 separate lesions are removed by snare.

 

[Colliemom]

Thank you, I have caught similar errors on their site, but since I haven't done any endoscopy coding in a while I thought I might have missed something.

 

[jfolz]

you are right

That is correct, they are mistaken. 45385 or 45380 can only be coded once per encounter. (But they can be coded together if both methods of removal are used on two distinct and separate lesions at separate locations.)