Co-surgery, Team surgery, Assistant at surgery

Modifiers for co-surgery, team surgery and assistant at surgery

CPT^® has specific modifiers for co-surgery, team surgery and assistant at surgery. There are specific rules for each situation. CMS has a fact sheet that is helpful, and that reference is at the end of the article.

The Medicare Fee Schedule is published annually, and coders can download it from the CMS website. (Citation also at the end of the article.) The excel sheet has three relevant columns for this discussion: co-surgery, team surgery and assistant at surgery, with an indicator of 0, 1, 2 or 9 in the columns. Coders who subscribe to a coding program don’t have to use the excel file, because the coding program has this information in an easy to find format.

Join Now to unlock this article and hundreds of other resources in our coding education library.

Last revised December 8, 2021 - Betsy Nicoletti
Tags: general surgery_modifiers, global surgery issues, modifiers

Our mission is to provide accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date coding information, allowing medical practices to increase revenue, decrease coding denials and reduce compliance risk. That's what coding knowledge can do.

In 1988, CodingIntel.com founder Betsy Nicoletti started a Medical Services Organization for a rural hospital, supporting physician practice. She has been a self-employed consultant since 1998. She estimates that in the last 20 years her audience members number over 28,400 at in person events and webinars. She has had 2,500 meetings with clinical providers and reviewed over 43,000 medical notes. She knows what questions need answers and developed this resource to answer those questions. For more about Betsy visit www.betsynicoletti.com.