General Surgery Coding Alert

You win some and lose some with updates.Don't get too comfortable with the nearly brand-new 2011 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. On Feb. 4, CMS announced several changes to payment indicators that will impact the amounts that you collect from your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC).The agency had some good news -- and some bad news -- in MLN Matters article MM7319, which had an effective date of Jan. 1 and an implementation date of April 4.Look for Bilateral Surgery RevisionsYour bilateral surgery pay will drop when you perform chemodenervation, thanks to one of the new changes. The bilateral surgery indicator for 64613-64614 (Chemodenervation of muscle[s]...) will go from 1 (150 percent payment adjustment for bilateral procedures applies) to 2 (150 percent payment adjustment for bilateral procedure does not apply.) CMS rules now indicate that the RVUs for this code series are already based on the procedure being performed bilaterally. Likewise, the bilateral surgery [...]