CPT code 24582: Percutaneous skeletal fixation of humeral condylar fracture

Key takeaways

CPT code 24582 covers percutaneous skeletal fixation of a medial or lateral humeral condyle fracture with manipulation.

The global period is 90 days, so routine follow-up care is bundled into the procedure payment.

Modifier -LT or -RT is required on every claim, and modifier -51 applies to multiple procedures in one session.

Pair the code with S42.41, S42.45, or S42.46, and never with S42.42 or S42.43.

Practice management software like Pabau links the codes, prompts for modifiers, and tracks the 90-day window.

CPT code 24582 covers percutaneous skeletal fixation of a humeral condylar fracture, medial or lateral, with manipulation. The surgeon reduces the fracture without opening it, then stabilizes the condyle with pins or wires placed through the skin.

This reference covers the billing detail behind the code. That means the ICD-10 pairings, the laterality modifiers payers expect, RVU values, and the 90-day global period.

CPT code 24582 sits in the musculoskeletal system chapter of the CPT code set, under humerus and elbow. The American Medical Association (AMA) publishes and maintains the descriptor. The surgeon inserts wires or pins through the skin into the bone fragments, after manipulating the fractured condyle back into alignment.

Fluoroscopic guidance (C-arm imaging) is typically used during surgery to confirm wire placement and fracture alignment. When fluoroscopy is performed and documented separately, report it with the appropriate imaging guidance code. Leaving it out of the operative note when it was used is a common documentation error on orthopedic claims.

When to use CPT code 24582: Billing guidelines and clinical criteria

This code applies when the surgeon reduces the fracture by manipulation and then stabilizes the condyle with pins or wires placed through the skin. No open incision is made. Practices running orthopedic and physical therapy software can tie each procedure code to its documentation template. That stops the open-versus-percutaneous mix-up at the point of care.

Bill CPT code 24582 when all of the following conditions are met:

• The fracture involves the medial or lateral humeral condyle, not the epicondyle or the shaft
• The treatment includes fracture manipulation (closed reduction) before fixation
• Fixation is achieved percutaneously, with pins or wires through the skin and no open incision
• Fluoroscopic guidance was used and documented, if it is reported separately
• The operative report identifies the condyle as medial or lateral, which determines the ICD-10 code

Documentation requirements: The operative note has to record five things.

• Fracture location, medial or lateral condyle
• Method of reduction
• Pin count and placement
• Fluoroscopy use
• Any intraoperative finding that changed the planned approach

Vague notes are the main reason payers downcode or deny surgical orthopedic claims. Building medical billing compliance checks into the charting step catches the omissions early, and HIPAA-compliant documentation keeps the whole record defensible in an audit.

ICD-10 codes used with CPT code 24582

Payers require a valid ICD-10-CM diagnosis code that establishes medical necessity for CPT code 24582. The S42 category covers fractures of the shoulder and upper arm. Verify code validity against the CDC ICD-10-CM tool for the applicable fiscal year before you submit.

Two neighboring codes are easy to grab by mistake. S42.42 is a comminuted supracondylar fracture, and S42.43 is an avulsion of the lateral epicondyle. Neither one describes a condyle fracture, so neither supports medical necessity for 24582.

Use the 7th character A for the initial encounter, meaning the visit where active treatment happens. Subsequent encounters during the global period take D. Sequela codes (S) are for late effects, not routine follow-up.

Miscoding that character is a common claim edit trigger. Storing the pairing once in patient record management saves your coders from rebuilding it on every repeat encounter.

CPT code 24582 modifiers

Modifier selection affects both payment and claim adjudication. The AAPC CPT code lookup lists the applicable modifiers, though individual payers may restrict some or ask for extra documentation. Apply them on the clinical and billing facts of each case.

Laterality modifiers are not optional on this code. A claim that arrives without -LT or -RT is likely to hit a payer edit and sit in review. Automated billing workflows can catch the missing modifier before the claim goes out.

CPT code 24582 RVU values

Relative value units (RVUs) are the basis for Medicare reimbursement under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The CMS fee schedule lookup tool carries current RVU data by year and geographic location. Values change with every annual CMS update, so treat the figures below as approximate and confirm them for the current year.

Work RVU reflects the physician’s time, skill, and effort. For CPT code 24582 it sits at roughly 10.00 in publicly available fee schedule data. Confirm the figure in the official CMS fee schedule for your calendar year and practice expense locality. Geographic adjustments shift the final payment by region.

CPT code 24582 reimbursement rates

Medicare payment for CPT code 24582 is the total RVU multiplied by the annual Medicare conversion factor. That conversion factor changes each January with the CMS fee schedule update. A dollar figure from last year is never safe to reuse on this year’s claims.

Facility vs. non-facility rates

The place of service (POS) code on the claim decides which rate schedule applies. Billing the wrong POS code is one of the cleanest routes to a shortfall, because the non-facility rate is consistently higher than the facility rate.

CPT code 24582 is usually performed in a hospital outpatient department or an ASC. Coding data indicates ASC coverage for the procedure, but verify the current indicator on the CMS list of CPT/HCPCS codes for the applicable year. Commercial payer reimbursement can differ sharply from Medicare rates.

Global period for CPT code 24582

The global surgery period for CPT code 24582 is 90 days, starting the day after the procedure. That matches how CMS treats major surgical procedures. Routine post-operative care is bundled into the procedure payment, so standard follow-up visits cannot be billed separately.

Compliance tracking flags any appointment that lands inside the 90-day window, which stops a biller from charging for a visit the surgery already paid for.

Three modifiers allow billing during the global period when the circumstances warrant it:

• Modifier -24: An E/M service during the global period for a reason unrelated to the surgery. A patient who returns inside the 90 days with a chest infection is the standard example. Document clearly that the visit is for an unrelated condition.
• Modifier -25: A significant, separately identifiable E/M service on the same day as a procedure. Use it on the day of surgery when a distinct evaluation went beyond the normal pre-operative assessment.
• Modifier -79: An unrelated surgical procedure performed during the global period. The new procedure starts its own global period from its date of service.

Using these modifiers without supporting documentation is a common audit trigger. The note has to make the unrelated nature explicit rather than implied. When it does not, the claim comes back with denial codes that point straight at the global period.

Related CPT codes for humeral condylar fracture fixation

Picking the wrong code from the adjacent humerus fracture group drives a meaningful share of orthopedic denials and audit flags. The differentiators are the approach, open or percutaneous, and whether manipulation was performed. The same logic runs the length of the arm, from 23620 at the proximal humerus to 24340 at the elbow.

Three of these codes cover both sides in a single descriptor. Codes 24577, 24579, and 24582 each read “medial or lateral”. Laterality lives in the modifier and the diagnosis code, not in the code choice.

Decision rule: If the note says open incision or ORIF, look at 24579. If it says percutaneous pins with closed reduction, 24582 is correct. If the surgeon reduced the fracture and placed nothing, 24577 applies, in the same way 25676 handles the wrist. An epicondyle fracture belongs to 24575, and a complex periarticular injury to 24586.

How Pabau keeps orthopedic fracture claims clean

Orthopedic surgical codes carry more moving parts than office visit codes. CPT code 24582 alone brings a 90-day global period, mandatory laterality modifiers, ICD-10 7th-character rules, and sensitivity to place of service. Handled manually, every one of them is a place where a claim can fail.

Pabau’s claims management software prompts for the required fields before a claim leaves the queue. Claims then go out electronically through our Claim.MD integration, with rejections landing back in the same screen your billers already work from.

That shows up in the numbers you care about. A clean claim pays weeks earlier than a corrected one, and your team spends less of the month on denial management.

Practices billing orthopedic and musculoskeletal surgery use Pabau to:

• Link CPT code 24582 to S42.41, S42.45, and S42.46 in a standard pairing template, which removes the manual lookup
• Prompt billers for -LT or -RT before the claim can be submitted
• Track the 90-day global period on the record, so follow-up appointments are flagged and billed correctly
• Capture fluoroscopy documentation alongside the operative record using digital documentation forms
• Report claims by procedure code, so denial patterns in surgical billing show up early

Practices that run sports medicine software alongside other specialties keep surgical billing rules separate from office-visit billing. It all sits in one system, so nobody has to buy a second platform for the surgical side.

Reduce claim denials on orthopedic surgical codes

Pabau links CPT codes to ICD-10 diagnoses, prompts for the modifiers each claim needs, and tracks global periods in one place. Your billing team spends less time correcting claims and more time getting paid.

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Conclusion

CPT code 24582 is not a hard code to bill. It is an easy one to bill carelessly. Two things sink most of these claims: a missing laterality modifier, and a diagnosis code taken from the wrong rung of the S42 ladder.

Both are worth fixing at the point of entry rather than in the denial queue. A coder who sees the pairing rules on screen sends a clean claim. A coder working from memory reaches for S42.42 and waits three weeks for the rejection.

Book a demo to see how Pabau pairs CPT and ICD-10 codes, prompts for modifiers, and tracks the 90-day global period for orthopedic teams.

Continue your research

Coding a fracture the surgeon reduced but did not fix? CPT code 25676 walks through closed treatment with manipulation and the documentation it needs.

Billing a proximal humerus fracture instead? CPT code 23620 covers the greater tuberosity, with its own modifier and global period rules.

Working through a tendon transfer claim? CPT code 25310 sets out the RVU values and fee schedule detail for that procedure.

Need the diagnosis side of a femur shaft fracture? ICD-10 code S72.302C shows how the 7th character changes with the encounter type.

Frequently asked questions