Wiki Assistant surgeon

[amartinez1]

My question here is that a total hip replacement was performed with an assistant surgeon. My doctor was the primary surgeon but had another doctor helping out. Do i need to still append the modifier 80 for assistant surgeon? Not sure since he wasn't the assistant.

 

[lostone65]

If your doctor was primary you do not need to append a modifer other than side of body. The assistant surgeon has to append the 80 to the billing they do so the payer knows they were the assistant and pays the correct amount for assistant surgeon (typically 1/16th of the allowable for the surgeon).