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Removal of an Infected Graft

Date: Mar 8, 2013

Question:

Greetings, I have a physician coding both 36832 and 35903 for the following procedure procedure. I do not think I can bill these two codes together in the same area. Here is what the physician surgically completes: He opens at the site of the graft and drains the sinus tract. He transects the graft on the venous side. Then he make add'l incision and places a new peice of graft tunneled well away from the infected area and anastomosed to the remenent of the venous side of the graft then he transects the arterial side of the original graft and attaches the new graft to the remenent of the old graft. At the end of this the physicuan goes back to the original incision and removed the piece of infected graft. My thought is I can only code this as a revision using code 36832. Am I correct, or is the physician correct? 

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