Wiki Anyone billing for upper extremity vein harvest?

deeva456

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One of my vascular surgeons billed the following codes:
35566 - bypass graft, with vein; femoral-anterior tibial, posterior tibial, peroneal artery or other distal vessels
35500 - Harvest of upper extremity vein, 1 segment, for lower extremity or coronary artery bypass procedure (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure
35681 - Bypass graft; composite, prosthetic and vein (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)
35700 - Reoperation, femoral-popliteal or femoral (popliteal)-anterior tibial, posterior tibial, peroneal artery, or other distal vessels, more than 1 month after original operation (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)

35500 is an add-on code and is billable with the codes listed above except 35681. The surgeon is asking how can they bill for UE vein harvest on the same claim when 35681 is performed? Has anyone encountered this before? 35500 involves more work and time but billing with 35681 will cause a denial and no reimbursement. Any suggestion is appreciated. I'm thinking of adding modifier 22 to 35566 but wanted other opinions before recommending this to the surgeons.

Thank you
Dolores
 
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