Urology Coding Alert

In the July Urology Coding Alert, the answer to the reader question Prostatectomy, on page 55, stated that a nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy could include separate billing for the CaverMap device.

The CaverMap is a machine that can identify the nerves that spark an erection. Thus, the cavernosal nerves can be spared when a radical prostatectomy is performed. But billing cant be separate.

In our answer to this reader question, which focused on 95920 (intraoperative neurophysiology testing, per hour [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) and 95900 (nerve conduction, amplitude and latency/velocity study, each nerve; motor, without F-wave study), we neglected to mention the obvious. The CaverMap device is nerve-sparing. And the code for a radical prostatectomy, by definition, includes the nerve-sparing. CaverMap is used for nerve sparing in radical retropubic prostatectomy (55840-55845). The descriptor is: prostatectomy, retropubic radical, with or without nerve sparing. Therefore, there can be no separate billing for the CaverMap.