Saturday’s Neurosurgery Documentation and Coding Update

• Introduction.
• Prior authorization in neurosurgery. New! Medicare pilot program for prior authorization in neurosurgery.
• wRVU as a compensation metric: Issues and action.
• The global surgical package: What’s billable and what’s not. What about fluoroscopy, ultrasound, neuromonitoring?
• Co-surgery vs assistant surgery:  Documentation vs payment.
• Documenting reimbursement (and wRVU) impacting modifiers in neurosurgery. Modifier 22: will it ever get paid? Modifiers 50, 51, 52, 58, 79 and 79.
• Spine coding update. Approach to documenting spine procedures. New 2026 spine codes. Common issues in spine documentation and coding, including anterior and posterior procedures, decompression and deformity.
• Cranial coding update. Approach to documenting spine procedures. Common issues in cranial documentation and coding, including CP angle vs. skull base, EEA, aneurysms, decompressive craniotomy and SDH.
• Neuroendovascular coding update. Documenting cerebral angiograms: avoiding insufficient documentation. | Key issues in embolization coding (61624): aneurysm, tumors, SDH + 2026 bundling of embolization codes. | Intra-cranial arterial vs. venous interventions for thrombectomy and stenting. | New carotid stent codes.

Friday’s Resident/Fellow Course:

• Introduction.
• Coding vs. reimbursement: What’s the difference?
• Understanding CPT codes: Reporting what you do.
• Getting paid for what you do.  Explaining RVUs. What’s a work RVU (wRVU) and what you need to know before you sign an employment contract.
• Basic approach to spine and cranial coding.

Teri Romano

Teri is co-developer and instructor for the national coding and reimbursement workshops sponsored by the American College of Surgeons, the Society for Vascular Surgery and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.  She also provides on-site customized coding and reimbursement courses to physician and hospital groups, specializing in neurosurgery, general surgery, vascular surgery, and vein well as E/M and surgical case audits to assist physician groups in their compliance activities. In addition, she consults with vein, vascular, general surgical, and neurosurgical practices on practice management issues including service line development, revenue enhancement, staffing models, appeals management and expense reduction.

Click here to learn more.