ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Question: A 33-year-old patient reports to the ED with a badly injured left arm. The ED physician reduces the patient's (closed) dislocated left elbow, and then splints a fracture of the left humerus, and refers the  patient to an orthopedist for follow up and further treatment for the humerus fracture. Can we code separately for the dislocation, splint, and fracture treatment? Missouri Subscriber Answer: You should be able to submit a code for the elbow dislocation treatment - and maybe for the splinting of the humerus fracture. On the claim, report 24600 (Treatment of closed elbow dislocation; without anesthesia) for the elbow treatment You might be able to include 29105 (Application of long arm splint [shoulder to hand]) with modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) for the splint application - if the payer allows you to code for it. A lot of payers will  bundle this code into 24600 in this [...]