Anesthesia Coding Alert
Cardiopulmonary Monitoring Is Included in Procedure Code
Question: Our anesthesiologist used blood pressure monitoring, pulse oximetry, and ran a rhythm strip during a trigger point injection with ultrasound guidance. Can we bill for all of those? Virginia Subscriber Answer Many procedures require cardiopulmonary monitoring (such as the services you mention) either by the physician performing the procedure or an anesthesia provider. These services are integral to the procedure and should not be reported separately. The CCI policy manual states that examples of these services include cardiac monitoring, pulse oximetry, and ventilation management (e.g., 93000-93010, 93040-93042, 94760, 94761, 94770). Because of this, in the scenario you describe you can only bill for the injection itself with 20552 (Injection[s]; single or multiple trigger point[s], 1 or 2 muscle[s]) and ultrasound guidance with 76942 (Ultrasonic guidance for needle placement [e.g., biopsy, aspiration, injection, localization device], imaging supervision and interpretation).
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