Wiki Patient expires during procedure

[Coastal Coder]

I hope someone can help with this.

My physician took a patient to the OR for emergent ruptured AAA repair. He opened the patient and placed a clamp on the aorta and the patient expired. Can we bill for reduced services either modifier 52 or 53, or was there not enough of the CPT code 35102 completed to charge? This is the first time I have encountered this so any help would be great.

Thanks

 

[ardithch]

The statistics for patients surviving ruptured AAA repairs is not great, so this does happen quite often. You can bill the CPT with the 53 modifier for discontinued service due to the surgeon having to stop the procedure.

Hope this helps!

Ardith, CGSC

 

[Coastal Coder]

Thank You so much for your help.