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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Justify Providing -- and Getting Paid for -- Anesthesia After Failed Sedation With This Tool

Published on Thu Jun 04, 2009

V15.80 lets anesthesiologist say, 'I'm here because surgeon couldn't do it.' Tired of submitting medical necessity letters to support providing anesthesia to a patient who couldn't tolerate sedation? ICD-9 2010 answers your prayers while providing stage-specific codes for gout and giving  individual codes for irritability and two buckle fractures. Use History Code to Support Anesthesia Rather Than Sedation You know the drill: A gastroenterologist wants your anesthesiologist to provide anesthesia for a patient undergoing a colonoscopy because the patient has had a previously failed moderate sedation session. Now, you've got to explain the circumstances so that the insurer will cover the anesthesia. Time-saver: With ICD-9 2010, you'll have a specific code that paints this picture. New code V15.80 (Personal history of failed moderate sedation) will "support the medical necessity for an anesthesiologist to provide anesthesia services rather than moderate sedation which didn't work in the past," explains Marvel J. Hammer, RN, [...]
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