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Otolaryngology Coding Alert

READER QUESTIONS:

No Modifier Necessary When It's Not Co-Surgery

Published on Sun Mar 01, 2009

Question: We performed a tongue biopsy on a patient while the patient was in the operating room for a gastroenterological procedure. When we first saw the patient, she was too ill to biopsy this lesion, but whenstabilized, the gastroenterologist took her to the OR and called us in to perform this biopsy. Should we append modifier 62 or 80 to this service? Texas Subscriber Answer: No, you should not append modifier 62 (Two surgeons) or modifier 80 (Assistant surgeon) to either 41100 (Biopsy of tongue; anterior two-thirds) or 41105 (Biopsy of tongue; posterior one-third). Your ENT performed side-by-side surgeries with the gastroenterologist. The physician did not perform cosurgery (modifier 62) or assist with the GIs procedure (modifier 80).
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