tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2002 Issue 7

Go Beyond the Obvious When Coding Colon Resection With Fistula Closure

You risk losing out on your rightful reimbursement if you limit yourself to CPT's partial colectomy codes when none of them apply, especially for colon resections that include other procedures. When surgeons resect a patient's colon, the procedure is typically billed as a partial colectomy. Depending on the circumstances, the remaining colon sections may not be anastomosed (reattached). Instead, the surgeon creates a colostomy and, in some cases, closes the colon's distal segment by performing a Hartmann-type procedure. CPT has a variety of partial colectomy codes that include several additional procedures, such as anastomosis, colostomy creation, Hartmann-type distal end...

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