Eli's Rehab Report

Reader Question:

Ice and Heat on the Same Injury

Question: A patient came in with an injured foot, and the physiatrist gave the patient an ice pack at first to reduce swelling. Then later in the visit, he gave the patient a hot pack to relax the muscle. Application of both the cold pack and the hot pack is coded as 97010, so can we bill this code twice?

Illinois Subscriber

Answer: The code definition for 97010 states, application of a modality to one or more areas; hot or cold packs. Because the definition includes both hot and cold packs to one or more regions, it should be billed only once per visit, regardless of the time involved or the temperature of the packs applied. This therapy does not require direct one-on-one patient contact by the provider.