Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Can you include pulse oximetry monitoring (94760, noninvasive ear or pulse oximetry for oxygen saturation; single determination) with 76005 (fluoroscopic guidance and localization of needle or catheter tip for spine or paraspinous diagnostic or therapeutic injection procedures [epidural, transforaminal epidural, subarachnoid, paraverteral facet joint, paravertebral facet joint nerve or sacroiliac joint], including neurolytic agent destruction)? It seems like you cannot, but I am unable to find any reference to this.

Michigan Subscriber

Answer: Medicare will pay for pulse oximetry if it was the only procedure performed. Medicare considers pulse oximetry bundled into 94760. Since Jan. 1, 2000, Medicare has bundled pulse oximetry with any other service performed on the same date. Most commercial carriers have also followed suit on this policy. In addition, if the procedure is being performed in a hospital, the pulse oximetry would fall into the fee for the facility, rather than being recognized as a physician service.

Answers to Reader Questions and You Be the Coder are provided by Donna Creger, office manager for the physician group Anesthesia Consultants of Oxford in Oxford, Miss.