Anesthesia Coding Alert

Help your physicians share the info coders need.

TEE provides specialized information about surgical interventions, anesthesia effects, and the patient's condition that the anesthesiologist and surgeon can't learn with other diagnostic procedures. Creating a template for your provider to use when performing TEE can help point you to the most accurate code and answer potential questions from insurers.

A TEE template might include areas for the anesthesiologist to note:

• whether the TEE was for monitoring or diagnostic
• dictation of a thorough report covering the physician's examination and findings
• indications for the TEE exam
• atrial, ventricular and aortic assessments with comments
• post-procedure follow-up
• any complications
• the procedure's recording.

"We make each physician aware of the proper compliance for submitting TEE codes and stress the possibility of lost revenue if the proper documentation has not been met," says Judy A. Wilson, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CPC-ANEST, CMBSI, CMRS, with Anesthesia Specialists in Virginia Beach, Va.