UCR 230: FAQs - ESWL Bladder Stone Coding; Remote Incident To; and Coding Challenging Stone Cases with Single-Use Ureteroscopes

 February 14, 2025 

Scott, Mark, and Ray discuss questions that came into the PRS Network Community.

1. Our doctor's occasionally use the ESWL (Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy) for bladder stones. Insurance requires a laterality modifier. I am not sure if we can bill for it or not. If we can bill for it, what is the correct way to do it?
2. Can you please clarify the relaxation of the in person requirement for supervision in 2025? As I read it and as I understand that you have explained it, this is a new rule stating essentially that if I am a physician supervising a nurse practitioner, the in person supervision is waived and I only need to be available via telecommunication. Am I interpreting this correctly? My coders are pushing back saying that this only applies to telehealth visits not in person visits for my supervisoion of a nurse practitioner.
3. Coding Challenging Stone Cases: Is there a CPT code I'm missing here? What financial incentive is there to use the suction/vacuum technology and perform FANS/DISS for larger stones? Just the 22-modifer? Seems like from a billing/time perspective, it's not worth tackling larger stones with either FANS or DISS. 
   
   Does the 22-modifier really make that much difference? Can you provide an example of generally what additional time (ie double/triple, etc) actually generates for additional RVUs?