Reader Questions:
Code YAG Laser as Often as Medically Necessary
Published on Tue Jan 18, 2005
Question: Can a YAG be billed more than once in a patient's lifetime?
Iowa Subscriber
Answer: The yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser, 66821 (Discission of secondary membranous cataract [opacified posterior lens capsule and/or anterior hyaloid]; laser surgery [e.g., YAG laser] [one or more stages]), is a "one or more sessions" code that you can only report once in the 90-day global period. If it is repeated after the 90-day global period, it is billable as long as there's medical necessity.
If the ophthalmologist performs a YAG laser procedure on a patient within the global period of cataract surgery, append modifier -78 (Return to the operating room for a related procedure during the postoperative period) to 66821. - Advice for You Be the Coder and Reader Questions provided by Maggie M. Mac, CMM, CPC, CMSCS, consulting manager for Pershing, Yoakley & Associates, Clearwater, Fla; and Raequell Duran, president of Practice Solutions, Santa Barbara, Calif.
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