When MAC is used with an epidural or spinal, MAC not considered the primary anesthetic. Therefore, the QS modifier would not be appended. QS is only appended when MAC is the primary method of anesthesia.Thank you, for your quick response. I do have one more question, would you use the QS modifier or is it not considered MAC?
I am fairly new to coding surgeries and the first thing I asked is why we do not use the QS modifier here at our facility. The answer I received was that the "new person" in billing said that we don't really need to use it. With that being said, they have not been using it at all and we are not getting denials unless someone in billing is adding it later in the process and I do not know about it. We are using it as a primary method on most of our surgeries. We are a critical access hospital with specialty clinic and rural health clinic attached. Very small rural hospital. What would be the reason that we are not required to use this modifier, when by all rights, I was trained to use it at my previous place of employment. If anyone has a great article/info about aneasthesia coding let me know as I am always looking to be educated. Thank you.When MAC is used with an epidural or spinal, MAC not considered the primary anesthetic. Therefore, the QS modifier would not be appended. QS is only appended when MAC is the primary method of anesthesia.
If you have specific questions, feel free to ask me. The QS modifier is only used when MAC is the primary method of anesthesia. If the patient received MAC with an nerve block or epidural, MAC would not be considered the primary anesthesia method making the use of QS inappropriate.I am fairly new to coding surgeries and the first thing I asked is why we do not use the QS modifier here at our facility. The answer I received was that the "new person" in billing said that we don't really need to use it. With that being said, they have not been using it at all and we are not getting denials unless someone in billing is adding it later in the process and I do not know about it. We are using it as a primary method on most of our surgeries. We are a critical access hospital with specialty clinic and rural health clinic attached. Very small rural hospital. What would be the reason that we are not required to use this modifier, when by all rights, I was trained to use it at my previous place of employment. If anyone has a great article/info about aneasthesia coding let me know as I am always looking to be educated. Thank you.
Thank you for your reply!! So I should be using the QS modifier. I am going to start adding it going forward when needed. They were told also not to use the physical status modifiers, but I disagree with that also. In fact, billing told them that they should only use P2 or P3. Do most people not use the P1? Also, I know we would never use the P4-P6 because we would transfer the patient before procedures would be needed for those types of patients. I am singing up for an aneasthesia webinar provided by the AAPC hoping that it will help me out with any other questions I have. Looking forward to it.