Wiki arthroscopy

[Skewts]

Dr. did a left knee arthroscopy with partial medial meniscetomy and chondroplasty of medial femoral condyle.

I came up with 29881 the 1st procedure but the second has me confused. It appears 29881 includes chondroplasty but I am not positive. Doctor seems to think it is a separate procedure. Any thoughts? 29877 is bundled with 29881 and no modifier is allowed. What else could it be?

 

[codemeister]

A related question to this is, if the chondroplasty is performed in a different compartment of the knee (such as to treat chondromalacia patella) then can G0289-59 be reported since this is "acceptable with modifier" where 29877 isn't? I suspect not, because the descriptors in 29880 and 29881 include the language "same or separate compartment(s)." However, when would G0289 ever be reported?

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

Dr. did a left knee arthroscopy with partial medial meniscetomy and chondroplasty of medial femoral condyle.

I came up with 29881 the 1st procedure but the second has me confused. It appears 29881 includes chondroplasty but I am not positive. Doctor seems to think it is a separate procedure. Any thoughts? 29877 is bundled with 29881 and no modifier is allowed. What else could it be?

There is no circumstance where chondroplasty can be billed with 29881. Even if performed in a separate compartment. All chondroplasty of the knee was bundled into 29880 & 29881 in 2012. Using G0289 to get around this is incorrect. My guess is that your surgeon was in practice before 2012 and remembers when 29877 could be billed with 29881. And it is a separate procedure, so your doctor is correct on that, but it can't be billed. When the codes were combined in 2012 the RVU value for 29881 when up about 2 RVU's. Knee surgeon's saw a significant reduction in payment starting 2012.