Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Our anesthesiologist provided service while a pain specialist in our group administered an injection to a lumbar paravertebral facet joint. What surgical and anesthesia codes should I report, and how many base units should I report for the anesthesia service?

Montana Subscriber


Answer: Report the pain specialist's work with 64475 (Injection, anesthetic agent and/or steroid, paravertebral facet joint or facet joint nerve; lumbar or sacral, single level). Remember, you report a single code for an injection to the facet joint itself or injections to the facet joint nerves. If your physician administered multiple injections to multiple facet joints, also report +64476 (... lumbar or sacral, each additional level [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) as needed.

Your anesthesiologist's code and base units depend on the patient's position during the procedure, but in most paravertebral facet joint injections the patient is positioned prone. Verify the position from your provider's documentation and then submit either 01991 (Anesthesia for diagnostic or therapeutic nerve blocks and injections [when block or injection is performed by a different provider]; other than the prone position) or 01992 (... prone position). Code 01991 carries three base units, and 01992 has five base units.