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Orthopaedics Orthopaedics

Counting Laminectomy Levels

I am confused and hoping you can clarify a coding question I have. I thought I understood how to report laminectomy levels, however, after recently reading an article in the AHA Coding Clinic HCPCS Volume 22, Number 2 Second Quarter 2022 publication, I doubt myself. The surgeon performs and documents a L2, L3, L4 laminectomy with decompression (lateral recess). I have always coded this as 63047, and one unit of 63048. The coding publication I was reading states to report 63047 and 2 units of 63048. Have I been coding incorrectly by only reporting one unit of 63048?

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Secondary Payor Doesn’t Recognize Consultations

We have a patient with 2 commercial payers (BCBS and Cigna). A consultation code was submitted to BCBS, and they paid according to our contract. However, Cigna is refusing to process the claim since they no longer pay for consult codes. Am I allowed to change the CPT code and rebill Cigna? Or would I need to change the CPT, refile to the primary as a corrected claim, then send the balance on to Cigna?

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