Can the office visit and anoscopy be billed separately?
A. Anoscopy is considered part of the procedure and not separately billable. However, if flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy is done prior to the IRC, to rule out a bleeding source higher up, then both the endoscopy and IRC are billable and reimbursable. An office visit could also be billed with a 25 modifier provided that this is a visit on the day of an unplanned IRC. If the IRC had already been scheduled, then no visit can be billed unless for a completely different reason than the IRC.
