tci Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement - 2009 Issue 16

CODING COACH: Bilateral Cochlear Implants Create Programming Code Dilemma

Professional associations go to bat for audiology coders. If your physician performs cochlear implants, you're probably familiar with the codes for when an audiologist programs and reprograms the devices about a month after the surgery. In recent years, physicians have performed a growing number of bilateral cochlear implants. You may report 69930 (Cochlear device implantation, with or without mastoidectomy) with modifier 50 (Bilateral procedure). But what about the audiologist's initialization and programming? That's a question that's been bugging Charmaine Munt, field reimbursement manager at Advanced Bionics LLC, a Sylmar, Calif., manufacturer of cochlear implants. Munt has been hearing concerns...

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