Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Is transesophageal echocardiography (93315) included in basic anesthesia administration services covered in 00100 and similar codes?Oregon SubscriberAnswer: You shouldn't include placement of invasive monitoring forms, such as intra-arterial lines or central venous lines, and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) procedures in basic anesthesia administration services represented by 00100-01999, according to AMA's CPT Assistant (March 2006).Transesophageal echocardiography codes include:• 93312 -- Echocardiography, transesophageal, real time with image documentation (2D) (with or without M-mode recording); including probe placement, image acquisition, interpretation and report• 93313 -- . . . placement of transesophageal probe only• 93314 -- . . . image acquisition, interpretation and report only• 93315 -- Transesophageal echocardiography for congenital cardiac anomalies; including probe placement, image acquisition,interpretation and report.• 93316 -- . . . placement of transesophageal probe only• 93317 -- . . . image acquisition, interpretation and report only.When the physician performs these procedures, report them separately for your anesthesiologist according to the CPT coding guidelines that apply to the given code and the CPT section where they're listed.