Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Tip: Yes, you can code separately for fluoro guidance.Neurologists and pain management specialists frequently perform interlaminar epidural injections. The next time you're faced with one of these claims, be sure to mark the differences between interlaminar epidurals and other common spinal injections.Skip the Bilateral ModifierIf your interventional physician performs more than one interlaminar epidural injection in the same spinal region, you don't automatically append modifiers.Here's why: When your provider injects a substance into the epidural space via an interlaminar approach, the drug diffuses into the entire area. The spreading eliminates the need to inject medication into both sides of the space to achieve the desired results. Therefore, you won't need to include modifier 50 (Bilateral procedure) on your claim to document that the provider treated the complete space.Watch Levels, Not InjectionsBy the same token, multiple attempts to reach the same epidural space don't equal multiple procedures. You learn this because [...]