modifier 51 vs. 59

We had a patient (medicare) who had serial ekg's done-received an edit from Medicare stating the modifier was incorrect (51) used-I thought I recently read something regarding using 59 more instead of 51- anyone have any thoughts on this?

re: modifier 51 vs. 59

According to definition, -51 means multiple procedures, meaning, more than one. That would indicate that more than one EKG or EKG type procedure was done on the same day. Modifier -59 by definition means that a separate procedure was done on the same day as some other service. For example, the EKG was done on the same day as an office visit or other procedure. EKG gets the -59. I see, though that your patient has had serial EKG. Have you checked the other EKG codes that include long term monitoring such as 93272? Perhaps those might be better for your purpose ?