# Arterial cutdown for carotid stent



## brittany1356 (Apr 30, 2012)

Hello. 
My doctor performed a cutdown anterior to the sternoclediomastoid, and then a stent was placed percutaneously into the internal carotid atery. I am trying to find a code to bill for the cutdown. Because the stent was still placed purcutaneously I will still bill 37215. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you 

Brittany L, CPC-A


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## jewlz0879 (May 3, 2012)

I'm not sure you can bill for that. The only cutdown code I'm aware of is 34812 and that's for femoral artery cutdown. Maybe consider a 22 if he did the cutdown because of other problems preventing him from going percutaneous. Other than that, I would just bill the 37215. 

HTH


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## dpeoples (May 4, 2012)

jewlz0879 said:


> I'm not sure you can bill for that. The only cutdown code I'm aware of is 34812 and that's for femoral artery cutdown. Maybe consider a 22 if he did the cutdown because of other problems preventing him from going percutaneous. Other than that, I would just bill the 37215.
> 
> HTH




I agree with Jewlz. There is no code for the cutdown, you would have to code unlisted. However, if you did bill a unlisted code, you would end up sending a report to the payor who may or may not agree the extra code was warranted. Trying modifier 22 is probably your best chance at additional reimbursement.

HTH


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