Co Surgeons

Is it ever appropriate for two surgeons of the same specialty to each bill with a 62 modifier?

Modifier -62

Rarely but possible. Example: Patient has heart condition and should not be kept under anesthesia any longer than necessary.

modifier 62 and co-surgeons

One of the indicators in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Data Base (see the article on the topic in Codapedia) determines whether co-surgeons are allowed. If you have a coding program that includes the NCCI edits and status indicators, you will see that some procedures have an indicator that is:

Co-surgeons are never allowed for this procedure

Are allowed with documentation

or are allowed.

(That's my memory of the indicator descriptions, not the actual ones) You have to look up the specific procedure you are planning to see if co-surgeons can be billed or not.