Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Question: My neurosurgeon re-incised the skin over a direct cranial pulse generator in a subcutaneous pocket and removed it. He performed this procedure for component malfunction. Which code should I report for this procedure?

South Dakota Subscriber

Answer: You should report 61888 (Revision or removal of cranial neurostimulator pulse generator or receiver) for this procedure.

Don’t miss: You should never report 61888 in conjunction with codes 61885 or 61886 for the same pulse generator, according to the CPT^® guidelines. However, you could report code 61888 together with codes 61885 or 61886 if your neurosurgeon worked on two different generators. In this case, you would need to append modifier 59 (Distinct procedural service) to your claim.