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Urology Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Without a Payable Diagnosis, You're Out of Luck

Published on Mon Jan 18, 2010

Question: I coded a hand-assisted laparoscopic cryoablation of a renal mass lesion with intraoperative ultrasound as CPT 50542 with 223.0. Our Medicare carrier denied the claim stating it has a policy on this code, and I did not have a payable diagnosis. What am I doing wrong? Iowa Subscriber Answer: The reason you are receiving a denial is probably the diagnosis code you used: 223.0 (Benign neoplasm of kidney and other urinary organs; kidney, except pelvis). For a laparoscopic cryoablation of a kidney lesion (50542, Laparoscopy, surgical; ablation of renal mass lesions[s]), payers typically require a malignant kidney tumor diagnosis (189.0, Malignant neoplasm of kidney and other and unspecified urinary organs; kidney, except pelvis). Usually, the final diagnosis will be carcinoma of the kidney although there will be no specimen to evaluate. Even without a specimen you can still report 189.0 as the diagnosis if your urologist preoperatively suspects a [...]
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