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Pulmonology Coding Alert

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Use This Simple Tool to Keep the Bilateral Billing Rules at Your Fingertips

Published on Fri May 06, 2005

If you're tired of flipping though the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for advice every time you suspect your pulmonologist performs a bilateral procedure, refer to this handy reference chart to help determine which    pulmonology-specific codes you can bill with modifiers -50, -LT or -RT, and which you can't.

We've listed the top most frequently performed pulmonology codes, reviewed by Carol Pohlig, BSN, RN, CPC, senior coding and education specialist at the University of Pennsylvania department of medicine in Philadelphia
 
Note: We've broken down the codes according to whether the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule lists them with a 0,  1 or 2 indicator, with these definitions:
 
  • 0 - You cannot append modifier -50, but you can append -LT or -RT
     
  • 1 - You can append modifier -50
     
  • 2 -  The code already specifies a bilateral procedure, so you should not append modifier -50, -LT or -RT to denote a procedure's bilateral nature.

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