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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Answer These 3 Questions for Spinal Graft Coding Success

Published on Sat Jan 23, 2010

Tip: Don't expect separate reimbursement for all spinal grafting codes. If spinal bone graft coding has you stymied, your road to success is as easy as learning basic terminology and focusing on where your surgeon obtains the material he will use. Answer these three questions, and you'll choose every spinal graft code with confidence. 1. Is it an Autograft or Allograft? The surgeon can harvest bone from the patient's own body to graft onto the spine or he can use bone from a human donor. If he uses the patient's own bone, you'll code for an autograft (auto = "self") using one of the following codes: • +20936 -- Autograft for spine surgery only (includes harvesting the graft); local (e.g., ribs, spinous process, or laminar fragments) obtained from same incision (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure) • +20937 -- ... morselized (through separate skin or fascial incision) (List separately [...]
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