ASGE members may submit coding inquiries electronically to codingquestions@asge.org. When submitting a question, please allow at least three business days for a response. When submitting inquiries, please include the ASGE member’s name and ID number. Only questions will be accepted and no reports. Below is our featured Coding Question of the Month that could be beneficial to your practice.
Question: Our physician did a screening colonoscopy, and the patient had a poor prep. The problem is she reached the cecum, then rescheduled the patient two days later to repeat the exam with extended prep. Do we add any modifiers on the first colonoscopy? Would we add diagnosis code Z53.8 (discontinued procedure for other reasons)?
Answer: Once the cecum is reached, the colonoscopy is considered complete. In this case, no modifier is needed, and code Z53.8 should not be reported because the procedure was successfully completed to the cecum. However, repeating the colonoscopy could raise frequency limitation concerns. It would be wise to inform your providers so they can decide whether to continue or stop the procedure before reaching the cecum.