Ask Dr. Z

What is the best way to determine if fluoroscopy during an OR case is billable for the facility? NCCI edit? Allowable if it does not trigger an NCCI edit? Hospital coders are wanting all 76000 charges removed based on "separate procedure" designation (if a procedure was carried out as an integral part of another procedure already coded, then 76000 should be deleted). All fluoroscopy done in OR is related to the main procedure, and so it not a separate procedure, and I can only think of a few case that fluoro is a separate procedure... a sniff test done in imaging department. Do all these OR fluoro charges need to be removed, or do you have any guidelines that could help? I know rules have been updated to bundle spine cases, cysto cases, endoscopy, arthroscopy, and many pain injections, but how do we navigate the other surgical procedures where imaging is not included in the description of the procedure and does not trigger an NCCI edit?