Reader Question: Hip Fracture

Question: A patient comes into the ED after a fall complaining of hip pain. The ED physician does the workup, including x-rays, and then assigns a clinical impression of a hip fracture. There are no other procedures, such as splinting or traction? How should we code this?

Michele J. Tabbone
OSF St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria, Ill.

Answer: One option is coding the fracture 27230 (closed treatment of femoral fracture, proximal end, neck; without manipulation), attaching the left modifier (-LT) or right modifier (-RT) and modifier -52 (reduced services) for the facility. (Closed treatment is either with/without manipulation or with/without traction.) Remember, if the patient is admitted the visit will get rolled into the facility billing. If the patient is transferred to another facility, the treatment would not be rolled into the diagnosis-related group.


- Published on 2001-03-01