General Surgery Coding Alert

Keep your imaging coding out of hot water with just 2 digits. If you're not coding your surgeon's portion of the radiological procedures involved in performing a biopsy, you're losing out on deserved reimbursement. Follow our experts' advice to make sure you don't miss the pay you deserve -- or collect technical component pay that rightly belongs to the facility. 3 Codes ID Needle Placement Guidance Often while performing a biopsy, the surgeon will use some form of radiological guidance. In those cases, you should separately report the proper code for the radiological guidance for the needle placement, says Lynn Woolard, practice manager for General and Vascular Surgery in Elgin, Ill. If your surgeon uses radiological imaging during a biopsy, you usually can report the appropriate imaging code, such as 76942 (Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement [e.g., biopsy, aspiration, injection, localization device], imaging supervision and interpretation), 77012 (Computed tomography guidance for [...]