Celebrating 25 Years: Modifier Madness

The April 2001 Pediatric Coding Companion, the predecessor to the AAP Pediatric Coding Newsletter™, included an entry titled “Modifier Madness” in its Denial Den column (https://doi.org/10.1542/pcco_book001_document006). This entry described modifiers as “a double-edged sword in coding.” There is still truth to that description, as modifiers are important to providing information beyond a code’s descriptor, but payers may not recognize all modifiers, at least not as intended by Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®). This article revisits the following topics related to modifiers and related payment issues:Modifiers and indications for their usePayer policies and modifiersPast advice, not outdated