ballekll
New
I am asking the question, if my surgeons are doing bronchs pretty consistently before their more comprehensive lung procedures, open and thoracoscopically for the purpose of looking for possible metastatic lesions or other lesions in the bronchus or trachea in addition to the lesion or nodule they are performing a procedure on in the lung, would this be considered a scout bronchoscopy and therefore bundled. For lobectomy there is no question that 31622 hits an edit. My concern is that this seems to be the standard practice to do a bronch before their cases and they are in the OR because of known lesions or nodules or masses in the lung. The fact that 31622 is a seperate procedure makes one stop to ask " is it related to the primary surgery. There are statements that if it is an initial bronch that it may be billed. This is not always easy for a coder to assess. I have been given some advice to consider but I have a physician who feels that this scenario does not really mean extent of disease, as he feels that means that you are looking at the same original lesion not possible seperate lesions in the bronch or trach. The trach and bronchus are in the same organ system as the lung so one could say that it is not seperate and distinct. I would be very eager to get some opinions in this arena as most Thoracic coders to struggle with billing this code. thanks