tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2011 Issue 12

Reader Question: 49321: Stick to Anatomic Site for Code Selection

Question: Can we use 49321 for a laparoscopic liver biopsy to avoid using an "unlisted" code? Tennessee SubscriberAnswer: No, you should not report a laparoscopic liver biopsy using 49321 (Laparoscopy, surgical; with biopsy [single or multiple]). Instead, you should report the service using 47379 (Unlisted laparoscopic procedure, liver). Here's why: 49321 is in the CPT subsection for "Abdomen, peritoneum, and omentum" (49000-49999). Because CPT provides specific codes in the "Liver" subsection (47000-47399), you should use one of those codes for a liver procedure. Because CPT® doesn't provide a specific laparoscopic liver biopsy code, you need to choose the unlisted...

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.