Hi, out office is debating on when to bill a malignant plerual effusion. The report says a pt has cancer. The report also states the pt has plerual effusion. It does not reference it to the cancer. One coder wants to bill the effusion as malignant because the pt has cancer. Others don’t agree because it doesn’t say malignant effusion. Can anyone advise us on the correct effusion code. Thanks so much.
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Tag Archives: pleural
CPT code VATS with drainage of pleural effusion-help please
VATS surgery is new to me and I was hoping for some assistance.
I cannot locate a code for VATS with draining of pleural effusion. I saw a post where it was said to use 32601. My encoder leads me to an unlisted code.
"Thoracoscope was introduced into the chest showing fair decompression of the right lung with a large serous effusion present. The effusion was then evacuated with a suction."
My other question is my provider always inserts a chest tube at the conclusion of the procedure. This is allowed to be coded separately with a 59 modifier per CCI edits. My gut is telling me this is wound be bundled. Does anyone code a chest tube with VATS surgeries?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.