# Venous Access Code?



## AR2728 (Dec 14, 2011)

I find Venous Access Cath coding very confusing.  Would someone please assist me with the correct code for the following procedure:

Local anesthetic was administered and the left femoral vein was cannulated percutaneously employing the Seldinger technique. This was done just medial to the palpable femoral artery. There was draw of dark venous blood and the wire was passed without difficulty. Triple lumen catheter was then inserted over the wire with the wire removed. All ports were noted to draw well and were flushed with heparinized saline and capped off. The catheter was tacked to the skin with nylon sutures followed by a large bulky sterile dressing.


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## claning (Dec 14, 2011)

We need a little more info...was the patient over 5 years old? Where did the catheter end up? There was probably some type of guidance use, US or Fluoro?


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## AR2728 (Dec 15, 2011)

Patient is over 5 years of age, this was for a permanent subclavian port, note states port will be placed in a few days.  I see nothing noting the us of flourscopy or US, other than a notation that xray was ordered after the procedure was complete.


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## cblack712 (Jan 10, 2012)

Not sure if you got what you were looking for here, but the report needs more detail to code correctly, however if the physician did not leave the femoral and that is where the cath is placed the corrected code (at this point anyhow) is 36556. Undoubtedly though he/she used some form of guidance either fluoro (cpt 77001) or US (cpt 76937) - this will have to be documented though and if the physician did use the US it will have to indicate the patency of selected vein before 76937 can be used. Hope that helps - if you need anymore info feel free to PM me. I have been coding Interventional Rad for awhile now and will do what I can to help!


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