Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Our physician provided anesthesia during surgery to place a stress incontinence sling. How do I know which code to submit?

Idaho Subscriber

Answer: Several surgical codes apply to stress incontinence slings, including 51992 (Laparoscopy, surgical; sling operation for stress incontinence (eg, fascia or synthetic)), 53440 (Sling operation for correction of male urinary incontinence…), and 57288 (Sling operation for stress incontinence (eg, fascia or synthetic)). Each of these crosses to anesthesia code 00860 (Anesthesia for extraperitoneal procedures in lower abdomen, including urinary tract; not otherwise specified) or 00940 (Anesthesia for vaginal procedures (including biopsy of labia, vagina, cervix or endometrium); not otherwise specified).

Make your choice: Before selecting your code, check the operative notes to verify the surgeon’s approach. If they used a transvaginal approach, report 00940; otherwise you’ll report 00860. Sling incontinence surgery usually is performed to correct urinary stress incontinence, so you’ll probably turn to 00860 more often.