READER QUESTIONS: Look for Value Cross for 93510

Question: What’s the difference between cath codes 93508 and 93510?


Oklahoma Subscriber
 

Answer: You’ll find the difference between these two diagnostic cath codes in their definitions. Code 93510 (Left heart catheterization, retrograde, from the brachial artery, axillary artery or femoral artery; percutaneous) describes a full diagnostic left heart cath that includes catheter placement into the left ventricle and usually into the coronary arteries.

On the other hand, 93508 (Catheter placement in coronary artery[s], arterial coronary conduit[s], and/or venous coronary bypass graft[s] for coronary angiography without concomitant left heart catheterization) is the same procedure--with the exception that the catheter did not enter the left ventricle, which would require the catheter to cross the aortic valve.

Strategy: You should look for proof in the documentation that the doctor crossed the aortic valve. For example, the following indicators show that the physician provided a full left heart cath (93510):

• description of his advancing the pig tail catheter across the aortic valve
• measurements of intracardiac pressures (which require the catheter to be inside of the heart)
• the performance/findings of a left ventriculogram (which also requires the catheter to be placed inside the heart).

Any of these factors will establish the diagnostic study as a full left heart cath (93510) rather than catheter placement in the coronary arteries (93508).

Reader Questions reviewed by Sarah L. Goodman, MBA, CPC-H, CCP, president of SLG Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.