Wiki Mod -AS-59??

caskln1

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Complete brain fog here....... When billing out the assist at surgery, do you capture exactly what the surgeon charge was? Example: 23130 & 23000

For the surgeon it would read: 23130-RT
23000-59-RT
For the assist at surgery, 23130 does not support an assist yet 23000 does, so would you capture it as 23000-AS-59-RT or 23000-AS-RT dropping the -59 as there is nothing to unbundle since the 23130 was not charged out for an assist?........ I hope this makes sense to someone!

Thanks!
 
Jberry1971

You would only use the AS if the assistant is a Physician Assistant, the correct modifier for an MD assist would be 80
 
What I am primarily asking is if you would still attach a mod -59 to the procedure you are billing out for IF the primary code that you are unbundling is not included......2 procedure codes, 1 procedure bundled in with the other, you use 59 to unbundle if appropriate...... If the primary procedure code does not support an assist at surgery YET the unbundled procedure does, would you still attach the -59 to the unbundled code when billing out for the assist?
 
If you are only billing the one procedure for the assist, you should not need a 59. It's a great question and I can see why it would be confusing.
 
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