What code would you give for this scenario?
A healthy 5 year old male is placed under anesthesia to have a biopsy taken from his left ear drum.
a. 00120-P1
b. 00124-P2
c. 00170-P2
d. 00126-P1
I recently had this on a practice exam and thought "a" was the correct answer, but the rationale said that "d" was the correct answer. When I questioned it further the answer was:
"You are correct that otomy = incision. But you need to do an incision to do the biopsy. The difference between 00120 and 00126 is NOS vs. tympanotomy. There are no other specific anesthesia codes for ear procedures. The statement did specify - it said of left eardrum (tympanum). The procedure (biopsy) was done on the eardrum (tympanum) so that is why D is a better choice than A (NOS).
I guess what is confusing to me is that I thought you could actually do a biopsy with a needle and the question didn't state "incisional biopsy".. I am trying not to over think things, but this one keeps staying with me and doesn't seem right.. Should I assume from now on that a tympantomy should be used as a biopsy code? If not, based on the above question, how should I differentiate the two codes in the future?
Thanks so much for any insight you can provide!!
A healthy 5 year old male is placed under anesthesia to have a biopsy taken from his left ear drum.
a. 00120-P1
b. 00124-P2
c. 00170-P2
d. 00126-P1
I recently had this on a practice exam and thought "a" was the correct answer, but the rationale said that "d" was the correct answer. When I questioned it further the answer was:
"You are correct that otomy = incision. But you need to do an incision to do the biopsy. The difference between 00120 and 00126 is NOS vs. tympanotomy. There are no other specific anesthesia codes for ear procedures. The statement did specify - it said of left eardrum (tympanum). The procedure (biopsy) was done on the eardrum (tympanum) so that is why D is a better choice than A (NOS).
I guess what is confusing to me is that I thought you could actually do a biopsy with a needle and the question didn't state "incisional biopsy".. I am trying not to over think things, but this one keeps staying with me and doesn't seem right.. Should I assume from now on that a tympantomy should be used as a biopsy code? If not, based on the above question, how should I differentiate the two codes in the future?
Thanks so much for any insight you can provide!!