General Surgery Coding Alert

Capture diagnostic scope or leave $90 on the table. Billing multiple scopes could bring your practice legitimate pay, or it could bring you fraud charges. Your job is to know the difference -- and our job is to show you how. Follow these three tips to make sure you avoid the pitfalls and capture the opportunities inherent in laparoscopy coding. 1. Report Truly 'Diagnostic' Scope Separately When a surgeon performs a diagnostic laparoscopy, the findings sometimes lead the physician to determine the need for an open surgical procedure. In those cases, you can separately report the diagnostic laparoscopy. Check CCI: If the Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) bundles the diagnostic scope with the code for the open procedure, you'll have to append modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) to the procedure with the lower relative value units (RVUs) to override the edit pair. You can only use this modifier when the procedures involve [...]