How is laser trabeculoplasty (LT) billed?
CPT code 65855, trabeculoplasty by laser surgery, one or more sessions (defined treatment series) describes LT. Both argon laser trabeculoplasty (ALT) and selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) are described by 65855. Medicare assigns 10 postoperative days to 65855, making this code subject to Medicare’s “minor procedure” rules. This means that the office visit on the same day as LT is included in the allowance for the procedure in most cases. However, when there is a separate and identifiable reason for the visit, it may be billed with modifier 25. Modifier 25 indicates that the patient’s condition required an additional service beyond the usual preoperative care. CPT adds that, “This [25] modifier is not used to report an E/M service that resulted in a decision to perform surgery,” so just documenting the decision to proceed with an LT is not sufficient. Q. Will a repeat procedure be covered? It depends on the purpose and timing of the second treatment. Note that the description of 65
