Health Information Management

Do not code 57288 with 52000

APCs Weekly Monitor, September 24, 2004

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Do not code 57288 with 52000

Question: A patient comes in for urinary stress incontinence, and the physician performs a sling operation with tension-free vaginal tape (57288). After the sutures were brought through the sling and tied, the physician performed a cystoscopy to make sure the procedure was complete.

Can I report 52000 for the cystoscopy in addition to code 57288?

Answer: The American Medical Association has a specific policy on this. It would not be appropriate to report code 52000, cysto-urethroscopy (separate procedure), in addition to code 57288, sling operation for stress incontinence (e.g., fascia or synthetic), since the cystoscopy was performed to confirm that the procedure was successful.

Code 52000 is designated as a "separate procedure" and would not be reported when performed as an integral component of another procedure.

For more details see the October 2000 CPT Assistant.



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