Anesthesia Coding Alert

Beware: Most payers won't reimburse for monitoring with CPT 93318 .Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) anesthesia has long given fits to coders who need to choose among the procedure's code range (93312-93318). If you're fuzzy on which TEE code will bring in deserved reimbursement, take these tips from the experts.Determine Role of Line PlacementFor a study that involves real-time image acquisition and documentation, you'll use a code from 93312-93314 (Echocardiography, transesophageal, real-time with image documentation [2D] [with or without M-mode recording]...). If your anesthesiologist provides anesthesia for TEE, including probe placement, then performs the exam and also dictates the report, you'll use the global code 93312 (Echocardiography, transesophageal, real-time with image documentation [2D] [with or without M-mode recording]; including probe placement, image acquisition, interpretation and report), unless the procedure was done for a congenital cardiac abnormality.The other global code, TEE for congenital cardiac anomalies, is 93315 (Transesophageal echocardiography for congenital cardiac anomalies; [...]