debmontero
Guest
Good afternoon, coding gurus! 
I have a coding question I need some help with. Working with hand patients for quite some time, I think I have the Open vs. Closed Reduction definitions figured out. However, the question I have today is this: If a patient has a traumatic injury sustaining an open fracture and the surgeon reduces this fracture gaining access through the open wound caused by the trauma and not through his own incision, is it considered open or closed reduction? The opening created by the trauma, exposing the fracture, required a 3cm closure to repair the soft tissue after reduction of the fracture (13132). CPT 26746 is how the OP note was initially coded. Should it be changed to 26470? I reviewed this with our surgeon, who is a hand specialist. He states he understood an open fracture reduction could be coded as such, either if he made the incision to gain access or the trauma caused the area to be open. Any ideas? Thanks so much for your help!
Debbie
I have a coding question I need some help with. Working with hand patients for quite some time, I think I have the Open vs. Closed Reduction definitions figured out. However, the question I have today is this: If a patient has a traumatic injury sustaining an open fracture and the surgeon reduces this fracture gaining access through the open wound caused by the trauma and not through his own incision, is it considered open or closed reduction? The opening created by the trauma, exposing the fracture, required a 3cm closure to repair the soft tissue after reduction of the fracture (13132). CPT 26746 is how the OP note was initially coded. Should it be changed to 26470? I reviewed this with our surgeon, who is a hand specialist. He states he understood an open fracture reduction could be coded as such, either if he made the incision to gain access or the trauma caused the area to be open. Any ideas? Thanks so much for your help!
Debbie