Inguinal hernia repair

If a surgeon does a laparoscopic repair of an incarcerated inguinal hernia, would it be correct to use CPT 49650 with a 22 modifier (if documentation supports the 22 modifier) or should this be billed with CPT 49659 (since there is no specific code to report that the hernia was incarcerated)?

Thank you.
Donna

hernia

550.1x is the diagnosis code. The CPT code is 49650. Modifier 22 is only applied if documentation supports an unusual amount of time was required by the surgeon due to extent of the procedure, above and beyond what is normally required for the surgery.

Hernia

Thank you for your response. This question had actually never occurred to me. I always used (e.g.) 49650 regardless of whether it was incarcerated.

Here is how the question was asked of me..code 49650 doesn't specify "reducible" or "incarcerated" the way the open codes for hernia repair do. It is correct to assume that (e.g.)49650 would include either reducible or incarcerated hernia repair since it isn't specified in the code?

It is an interesting question. Where do we draw the line? There are open codes for repair of incarcerated inguinal herniae but no lap code so do we assume that we don't have to make the distinction or do we use the unlisted lap hernia code instead?

Thank you for your help.

Hernia

Help! Any additional thoughts on this? Thanks!