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E/M for Worsening Chronic Condition
I have a patient with end stage renal disease who I saw yesterday in follow-up in the clinic. His ESRD is not at treatment goal, I recommended a fistula procedure and discussed specific risks and benefits of the procedure with the patient. What E/M level should I bill?
Myringoplasty using a Water-insoluble, Off-white, Nonelastic, Porous, and Pliable Product
If a physician performs a myringoplasty and uses a water-insoluble, off-white, nonelastic, porous, and pliable product, would it be appropriate to report code 69620 alone or 69620 appended with modifier 52, Reduced Services?
Billing for a Simple Repair of the Scalp
My physician is billing a simple repair of the scalp with CPT code 12001 when he uses steri-strips to do the repair. I don’t believe this is correct. Can we report the use of steri-strips alone to report a simple repair?
Postoperative Pain Block by Surgeon
Our surgeon is performing a total knee replacement and a postoperative pain block on a Medicare patient. Can we report the block in addition to the total knee arthroplasty procedure?
Risk of Patient Management
Our new surgeon wants to code a level five encounter for all patients where the patient is scheduled for inpatient surgery. He states he was educated that all outpatient surgeries are automatically a level four encounter, and all inpatient surgeries are automatically level five encounters. Have we been assigning the level of risk incorrectly?
Thoracic Calcified Disc
The documentation indicates a costovertebral approach and rib removal to access and dissect a calcified thoracic disc at T9-T10. How is this coded? And can the rib removal be reported separately?
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