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Wiki 51 Modifier Are U Using It?

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ALICE AAPC

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i JUST READ IN CMS PUBLICATION 100 THAT ANESTHESIA CAN USE MODIFIER 51 FOR MULTIPLE BILATERAL SURGERIES. IF YOU HAVE USED IT CAN U EXPLAIN IT TO ME?

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51 modifier

We use -51 when we do more than 1 postop pain injection/catheter placement. For example, when surgeon does a total knee replacement, our docs will many times do a sciatic block with a femoral catheter nerve block. We put our -51 on the least expensive charge of the two, so it might look like 64448-59, 64445-59,51. We recently saw guidance on this in (I think) the Pain Pink Sheet from Decision Health. Other than this scenario, we don't use the -51.
 
51 modifier

It can be used with acute/chronic pain injection codes. It normally does not get used with the anesthesia codes (0 codes).
 
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