tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2010 Issue 3

You be the coder: Follow Hernia Bundling Rules

Question: During an open hernia repair for a reducible umbilical hernia, the surgeon finds a sizeable gallstone embedded in the omentum extending into the preperitoneal fat. The surgeon excises the gallstone granuloma with cautery. Patient history indicates cholecystectomy eight years ago. What are the correct ICD-9 and CPT codes? Utah Subscriber Answer: The proper procedure code for this scenario is 49585 (Repair umbilical hernia, age 5 years or older; reducible). If the gallstone resection represents a significant amount of extra time and effort, modifier 22 (Increased procedural services) would be appropriate.Watch out: You should not report the omentum...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to tci General Surgery Coding Alert.


Leverage vital, to-the-point monthly guidance to boost your reporting accuracy and your coding know-how. We make it convenient for your team to stay informed, compliant, and profitable with a subscription to TCI’s General Surgery Coding Alert.

  • Current newsletters added each month
  • Fully searchable archives - over 2100 articles
  • ALL years/issues back to 1999 organized by year and issue
  • Codes mentioned in articles are linked to Code Information pages
  • Code Information pages link back to related articles
Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • tci General Surgery Coding Alert +Archives

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

Thank you for choosing Find-A-Code, please Sign In to remove ads.