Anesthesia Coding Conference - Discontinued Anesthesia Services?

By Author: Angela Smith
Total Articles: 89
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Here's a situation: A patient who is undergoing surgery has complications; as such your anesthesiologist must stop his services. Are you ready to recognize a situation that needs modifier 53 (discontinued procedure) or even modifier 52 (reduced services)? Know the specific criteria for reporting each modifier to code right every time.
The status of the patient often determines modifier 53 use
You will append modifier 53 when a procedure ends owing to a threat to the patient's well-being or other extenuating circumstances. For instance, the surgeon carries out a preop assessment; however he detects a carotid bruit; as such he delays the surgery indefinitely until a better evaluation can be made.
Documentation clue: You can only append modifier 53 after anesthesia administration and/or a surgical preparation took place, and the procedure was actually started. You should take that the procedure has discontinued when anesthesia ends early. Modifier 53 is most apt here.
For instance: ...
... A patient is being prepared for a routine surgery but has not yet been induced. Yet another patient develops chest pains and must be induced for surgery immediately; as such your anesthesiologist must cancel the first procedure to attend to the second patient's procedure. Here you should go for modifier 53. You should let the payer bring down the fee on services to which you attach modifier 53. Or else, you risk more payment reductions.
For more on anesthesia coding and ways to append the right modifier, turn to an anesthesia coding conference. For this you can set sights on Orlando, FL this December and scoop up all the information that the conference will throw up for grabs.