Wiki Does anyone know of a good place to find CPT codes for GYN-Oncology?

[trthel]

Good Morning fellow coders,

Does anyone know of a good place to find CPT codes for GYN-Oncology? I just started coding for GYN-Oncology and I am lost so much involved with this type of surgeries. I already code for OB-GYN but the Oncology is so more detailed. For example for this type of procedure - Exploratory laparotomy, total abdominal hysterectomy, left salpingo-oophorectomy, frozen section, omentectomy, pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy, peritoneal biopsies.

Please help if anyone has any very good resources finding appropriate CPT codes for Oncology.

Thank you so much for your help.
Tisa

 

[csperoni]

Tisa,
SGO (Society of Gynecologic Oncologists) is a great resource. They used to have annual in person coding seminars, then switched to online, but I don't think they do them separate anymore. It might be a module option in their annual meetings. I think they have some coding areas on their website anyone can access, and SGO members can access more. It is highly likely your gynonc docs are SGO members.
Attached is one of their Coding Q&A.
ACOG is also a pretty good resource, even though it's not just the oncology portion.

Every case can be different, and certainly in the beginning, you may need to have a couple of discussions with your docs. Even in my practice, where I had been coding gynonc for 10+ years, when we got a new doc, he did some slightly different procedures that I needed to clarify. Typically, if you contact the doc and explain that you need to better understand the medical portion so that you can maximize their reimbursement, they are more than happy to spend a few minutes of discussion to get a better payment.
Many of the open codes you will use every day are in the 58943-58960 section. Be advised some of those specifically require a malignancy diagnosis. So if the case was done for suspected cancer, and the path is benign, you cannot use any of the codes requiring malignancy dx. The laparoscopic codes are a little more all over the place.
Some key words to look for are debulking and radical. If the doc says it's not debulking, even though everything else about the code seems right, you cannot use the code. Sometimes you have to split it because there is no one code to describe it without overcoding.
Get familiar with looking at CCI edits.

Most gyn oncs don't anymore, but if your docs do chemotherapy, that is another whole complicated aspect. I haven't done chemotherapy coding in years, but ASCO probably has some good resouces there.

For the question you posed, look at 58951 first. Or if the doc would call the hysterectomy radical, then possibly 58210.

Good luck & welcome to gynonc!