Eli's Rehab Report

Plus: You can now separately report 20550 (Injection[s]; single tendon sheath, or ligament, aponeurosis [e.g., plantar "fascia"]) and 29540 (Strapping; ankle and/or foot) - thanks to NCCI, version 11.0.

The bad news: Be careful when you report central motor evoked potential studies for upper limbs (95928) or lower limbs (95929) with most orthopedic and neurosurgical codes. NCCI 11.0 makes both codes components of a whopping 472 comprehensive codes - including 57 codes from the musculoskeletal system surgery section and 410 from the nervous system surgery section.

Also beware that the majority of these edits have been assigned a status indicator of "0," which means there's never a good, or acceptable, reason to use a modifier to override these bundles.

But there's no reason to fret, yet. Physical therapists don't use codes from the 20000 and 60000 code ranges, so this edit is unlikely to affect an individual PT practice, says Ellen Strunk, a physical therapist at Restore Physical Therapy Services in Pelham, Ala. "But it might affect a physician's practice if they employ a PT," she says.