Wiki layered closure in acl reconstruction & total joints

[AESCPC]

Please Help !!! My doctors want to bill for layered plastic closures using codes 12032-12037 for layered plastic closures. I disagree as most of the procedures indicate the incision is closed with sutures, staples and/or steri-strips. Not to mention these series of codes description is repair of wounds.....

I will take any sugestions.

Thank you

 

[cgaston]

You are correct that closures are included in a surgical procedure. How are they going to work on a bone without cutting through the skin and subcutaneous tissue???


The NCCI edits have guidelines before each section. This is from the beginning of the 20000 section:

30. Closure/repair of a surgical incision is included in the global surgical package. Wound repair CPT codes 12001-13153 shall not be reported separately to describe closure of surgical incisions for procedures with global surgery indicators of 000, 010

and can be found here https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/NationalCorrectCodInitEd/index.html

 

[AESCPC]

My thoughts exactly!

Thank you so much for your response.