Tips Help You Capture Radiological Supervision With Vertebroplasties
Posted on 13. Apr, 2012 by dchandhok in Hot Coding Topics
Here’s how to report radiological assistance your surgeon utilized and get full payment when your surgeon performs vertebroplasties.
When performing a percutaneous vertebroplasty, your surgeon will use imaging to position the needle or to assess the injection technique. Use 72291 (Radiological supervision and interpretation, percutaneous vertebroplasty, vertebral augmentation, or sacral augmentation [sacroplasty], including cavity creation, per vertebral body or sacrum; under fluoroscopic guidance) or 72292 (Radiological supervision and interpretation, percutaneous vertebroplasty, vertebral augmentation, or sacral augmentation [sacroplasty], including cavity creation, per vertebral body or sacrum; under CT guidance) to report the radiological supervision depending upon whether your surgeon uses computed tomography (CT) instead of fluoroscopic guidance.
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In case the procedure is performed in a facility setting, you should append modifier 26 (Professional component). “This has been historically separately reportable to account for circumstances in which the imaging interpretation is performed by a separate physician, typically a radiologist, from the physician performing the vertebroplasty. Based on trends in CPT®, the services may become bundled if a significant majority of both services are performed by the same physician,” says Gregory Przybylski, MD, director of neurosurgery, New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center, Edison.
Caution: “If you append modifier 26, you must save a hard copy of the image(s), and you must dictate a separate procedural report, and sign it (or electronically sign it) separately,” says Bill Mallon, MD, medical director, Triangle Orthopedic Associates, Durham, N.C.
Coding scenario: “If your surgeon performs vertebroplasty at T12 and L1 and uses fluoroscopic guidance, you report...
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