Ask Dr. Z

We had a STEMI come through the ER. The patient recieved a left heart cath, and a drug eluting stent was placed in the OM2. The procedure ended and the patient was taken off the table and moved to his room. About two hours later, the performing physician was reviewing the study and realized he had unknownly recanalized a lesion in OM1 that he now felt was the true culprit lesion. This vessel did not have good flow, so the patient was at risk for another cardiac event. So, the patient was brought back into the lab and a drug eluting stent placed in this vessel. As both of these interventions were done in the left circumflex distribution, will we be able to charge for the second stent placement with a -76 modifier? Or can we only charge for the initial procedure?