Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: What code should I submit for a piriformis muscle injection used for pain management?

Alabama Subscriber

Answer: You have two coding options for this procedure, depending on your physician’s documentation of the exact injection location.

If he only documents an injection into the muscle, code the service as a trigger point injection with 20552 (Injection[s]; single or multiple trigger point[s], one or two muscle[s]).

If your physician blocks the sciatic nerve and has clear supporting documentation, 64445 (Injection, anesthetic agent; sciatic nerve, single) might be a more accurate code to report.

-- Answers to You Be the Coder and Reader Questions were provided by Teresa Celestino, CPC, a coder with Northwest Anesthesiology in San Antonio, Texas; Scott Groudine, MD, an Albany, N.Y., anesthesiologist; Barbara J. Johnson, CPC, MPC, owner of Real Code Inc. in Moreno Valley, Calif.; and Marvel J. Hammer, RN, CPC, CCS-P, ACS-PM, CHCO, owner of MJH Consulting in Denver.