tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2000 Issue 1

Reader Question: No Resection, No Payment

Question: A patient is seen with acute bowel obstruction. He has a strangulated hernia, which at operation releases and no resection is needed. The hernia is repaired. Medicare will pay bowel obstruction as an independent procedure only, and thus hernia will not be paid. Is there any way we can get payment for half of hernia?H. Subramanian, MD, N.Y.Answer: Because no resection was performed, the only procedure that can be billed is the hernia repair. There should be no expectation of payment for a resection that wasnt performed, says Susan Callaway-Stradley, CPC, CCS-P, an independent coding...

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