Wiki Corpectomy Coding

[dlashua]

Hi,
I swear corpectomy coding is going to be the death of me! If anyone has a system/method they use would you be willing to share it? I think these procedures give me anxiety.

My current method is:

Drawing a picture of the affected area of the spine. Coloring the primary location and then coloring the disc space above and below. Corpectomy piece done - Then I color where the graft is placed - Yea!! Graft in - then and this is where I encounter problems..........arthrodesis/fusion - what to do? Can you bill it? Should you bill it? I think you can and should but I ALWAYS question myself. I think I am getting hung up on the wording of the codes because it includes discectomy BUT the discectomies are done as part of the corpectomy..............UGH.........H E L P -

Thank you,
Doss

 

[sarab86]

I ALWAYS draw a little picture on every corpectomy case I code.
Yes you can bill a fusion with a corpectomy, just be sure you are using the fusion code WITHOUT any disk work.

i.e. a C5 corpectomy with C4-5, C5-6 Anterior fusion.
C5 corpectomy-63081(without lesion)
C4-5 fusion-22554(just the anterior fusion WITHOUT diskectomy)
C5-6 fusion-22585(additional level)
C4-6 plate-22845
C4-6 interbody device-22851(be sure if the note shows 1 or more devices. 1 device can take up all levels)
And any grafting.

Hope that helps.
The AANS has good tips on this.

 

[dlashua]

Sara,

This is perfect and is EXACTLY what I coded. I attach my "drawings" to each OP note to help me remember what I was thinking..... just in case. Thank you - you have made me feel much better about my process and my belief that we can and should bill for the arthrodesis!