Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: How should I code anesthesia for resection of lateral posterior corner of bone graft with a diagnosis of "displaced right L5-S1 interbody bone graft"?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: Your best anesthesia coding option is 00630 (Anesthesia for procedures in lumbar region; not otherwise specified), which has eight base units. If the carrier requires surgical codes, the correct code depends on the type of graft reported with the procedure code. The surgeon is likely to report an arthrodesis code such as 22612 (Arthrodesis, posterior or posterolateral technique, single level; lumbar [with or without lateral transverse technique]) or 22630 (Arthrodesis, posterior interbody technique, including laminectomy and/or diskectomy to prepare interspace [other than for decompression], single interspace; lumbar).

Appropriate ICD-9s to support medical necessity for this procedure include 996.78 (Other complications of internal [biological] [synthetic] prosthetic device, implant, and graft; due to other internal orthopedic device, implant, and graft) or 996.55 (Mechanical complications of other specified prosthetic device, implant, and graft; due to artificial skin graft and decellularized allodermis).