Foraminotomy without a facetectomy??

Many debates about 63030 vs 63047 in my office. Dr dictates that he decompressed the nerve roots and the dura. He also states that he performed a foraminotomy but does not clearly state that he performed a facetectomy.

We are trying to figure out a few things:

1) can you perform a foraminotomy without a facetectomy?

2) How can we get the dr to word the request for surgery so that when we obtain precerts, we precert the correct code? I have noted and attempted to educate staff that 63030 is per interspace and 63047 is per segment.

thanks!

re: Foraminotomy without a facetectomy??

63030 is for disk issues (HNP, DDD, etc).
63047 is for bone disease (stenosis, ostephytes, spondylosis, spondylolisthesis, etc).