Question

You are a new medical coder that works for an Orthopedic medical practice. Patients are often seen for fractures or dislocations which require either a cast or splint. A common patient encounter may be for application of a long-arm split.

Apply your knowledge of CPT to this patient scenario.

Include the following aspects in the assignment:

Ø  Describe what a long-arm splint is and when this would be appropriate

Ø  Provide the CPT code from the Surgery section which would identify application of a long-arm split

Ø  List the steps of how you arrived at this code and explain how this is important for reimbursement purposes

Answer 1

According to the given scenario..

Part 1 long arm splint is split to provide support and immobilisation to soft tissue and bone in upper extremities.

Construction: start a posterior proximal arm

Down at ulnar forearm

End at metacarpophalangeal joint.

Indication for long arm splints.

Olecranon fractures

Humerus fractures

Radial head and neck fractures

Part 2:29105 is the appropriate CPT code for long arm splint, forearm to hand static.

Part 3: there are different kinds of splints for various surgery

The split provided to in the upper scenario was a long arm splint

And the code assigned to given scenario is 29105 . A code used for long arm splint . Which runs from forearm to hand and static.

This is very important for reimbursement purposes.as it is suggestive of surgery performed. And helpful in billing.

Thanks