jdibble
True Blue
Good afternoon, Coders!
I would appreciate some help and opinions in regard to the surgery below. The surgeon is doing the first stage of a knee revision. I always coded this as 27488. He is insisting the first stage should also be billed as 27487 with 20704 for the revision because it is an articulating spacer based on information he got from a 2020 webinar by AAHKS. Based on this webinar, he states that an articulating spacer is the same as the real total knee arthroplasty and therefore the first stage should be billed as 27487 and 20704. Then there is also the question of the correct coding for the second stage. Again, based on his webinar he claims the second stage with an articulating spacer would be like the removal of the real knee components and he insists this should also be billed 27487 and 20705. I have done research on this and have found an AAOS article on the correct way to code the second stage as 27447-22 for this surgeon before, which he totally denied as correct because of the AAHKS Webinar. So basically, he is saying that both surgeries would be 27487.
I don't have access to his source Webinar aside from 2 slides he copied, and I am not familiar with AAHKS. The slides he did show me actually have incorrect information listed on them in regard to codes 11981, 11982 and 11983 as only used now for urology and gyno coding besides the suggestion of the incorrect coding for the procedure, so I don't have much faith in his source.
How do you all usually code these and please, if you have any reliable sources that can be provided to support the correct coding of these procedures it would be appreciated! Also, if someone has information about his claim that an articulating spacer is coded differently than a static spacer that would be helpful too!
Thanks for all the help in this issue!
Jodi
I would appreciate some help and opinions in regard to the surgery below. The surgeon is doing the first stage of a knee revision. I always coded this as 27488. He is insisting the first stage should also be billed as 27487 with 20704 for the revision because it is an articulating spacer based on information he got from a 2020 webinar by AAHKS. Based on this webinar, he states that an articulating spacer is the same as the real total knee arthroplasty and therefore the first stage should be billed as 27487 and 20704. Then there is also the question of the correct coding for the second stage. Again, based on his webinar he claims the second stage with an articulating spacer would be like the removal of the real knee components and he insists this should also be billed 27487 and 20705. I have done research on this and have found an AAOS article on the correct way to code the second stage as 27447-22 for this surgeon before, which he totally denied as correct because of the AAHKS Webinar. So basically, he is saying that both surgeries would be 27487.
I don't have access to his source Webinar aside from 2 slides he copied, and I am not familiar with AAHKS. The slides he did show me actually have incorrect information listed on them in regard to codes 11981, 11982 and 11983 as only used now for urology and gyno coding besides the suggestion of the incorrect coding for the procedure, so I don't have much faith in his source.
How do you all usually code these and please, if you have any reliable sources that can be provided to support the correct coding of these procedures it would be appreciated! Also, if someone has information about his claim that an articulating spacer is coded differently than a static spacer that would be helpful too!
Thanks for all the help in this issue!
Jodi