Monday, January 6, 2014

Injection of Dex and lidocaine for an ankle sprain patient

Question:          A Medicare patient presents with painful ankle, and is diagnosed with ankle sprain: 729.5, 719.47, 726.79. An injection of the above was administered. What CPT code is appropriate in this case?

Ans- 1. Was the injection into a tendon/ligament, or into the joint space? If tendon/ligament, you would look at codes 20550-20551, for joint space, 20605.

2. You can bill for the dexy, if enough was used to qualify for one unit. Can't bill for the lidocaine.

3. You say the patient was diagnosed with an ankle sprain, yet no ankle sprain diagnosis was selected. Look at 845.00-845.09. And I am not sure why the 726.79 was diagnosed, but then again, I haven't read the treatment note.          

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