Two Laparoscopic Procedures

Hi,

My question is as follows, patient is scheduled for an emergency appendectomy, and during the laparocopic appendectomy, the surgeon finds hernia, and also repairs this laparoscopically. I checked the CCI and this does not hit an edit, can you bill for both procedures? Or because both were performed laparoscopically, through the same incision site, this can not be billed together.

Thanks,
Melissa Tebo, CPC

Two Laparoscopic Procedures

What type of hernia was found/repaired?

Question above

Umbilical Hernia

hernia

According to Medicare, if another procedure is performed in course of doing the planned procedure, there must be medical necessity to repair the hernia. In other words documentation must support repair. Otherwise it may be considered an incidental procedure.