Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Our pain management specialist has hired an anesthesiologist to provide monitored anesthesia care (MAC) for certain services (62321, 62323, 62327, 62370, 64483, 62368, 20610, and 95972, 76000). What anesthesia code(s) should we report for these services?

West Virginia Subscriber

Answer: According to guidelines from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), most of the CPT^® codes you specify represent procedures that do not typically require separate anesthesia care. Code 76000 (Fluoroscopy (separate procedure), up to 1 hour physician or other qualified health care professional time) is a radiological service related to another diagnostic or therapeutic procedure, so reporting anesthesia in conjunction with this service also would not be appropriate. Hence, this code would not require separate anesthesia care.

For procedures 64635 (Destruction by neurolytic agent, paravertebral facet joint nerve(s), with imaging guidance (fluoroscopy or CT); lumbar or sacral, single facet joint) and 22514 (Percutaneous vertebral augmentation, including cavity creation (fracture reduction and bone biopsy included when performed) using mechanical device (eg, kyphoplasty), 1 vertebral body, unilateral or bilateral cannulation, inclusive of all imaging guidance; lumbar), you can report anesthesia code 01936 (Anesthesia for percutaneous image guided procedures on the spine and spinal cord; therapeutic).