Radiology Coding Alert

Distinguish region from level to prevent denials.Pain management specialists frequently perform interlaminar epidural injections. The next time you're faced with one of these claims, be sure to mark the differences between interlaminar epidurals and other common spinal injections.Skip the Bilateral ModifierIf your interventional physician performs more than one interlaminar epidural injection in the same spinal region, you should not append modifier 50 (Bilateral procedure) or append modifiers RT (Right side) and LT (Left side) to 62310-62311 (Injection, single [not via indwelling catheter], not including neurolytic substances, with or without contrast [for either localization or epidurography], of diagnostic or therapeutic substance[s] [including anesthetic, antispasmodic, opioid, steroid, other solution], epidural or subarachnoid ...).Here's why: When your provider injects a substance into the epidural space via an interlaminar approach, the drug diffuses into the entire area, explains CPT Assistant (November 2008). The spreading eliminates the need to inject medication into both sides of the [...]