Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

Published on Wed Jul 30, 2003 PDF

Even while industry reps complain Medicare coverage means less money in some instances, they also criticize Medicare for being slow to add services to the list.
 
Medicare wrongly kept half a dozen important codes off the ASC-covered list, according to the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. These include 27093 (hip injection), 27096 (SI joint injection), CPT 62290 (injection procedure for discography, each level; lumbar), 62291 (... cervical or thoracic), 62264 (lysis of epidural adhesions - one day) and 0027T (endoscopic epidural edhesiolysis).
 
CMS considered adding several codes to the ASC list in its 1998 proposed rule, then failed to do so, the Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association complains. These include extensive throat surgery codes 42842 and 42844, plus 28124 (partial excision bone, phalanx of toe), 52301 (cytourethroscopy), 57288 (repair bladder defect) and 60210 (partial thyroid excision).