Anesthesia Coding Alert
Choose an E/M Code for Lumbar Drain Placement Follow-up
South Carolina Subscriber Answer: Both codes for diagnostic and therapeutic lumbar drains carry zero global days: 62270 (Spinal puncture, lumbar, diagnostic) and 62272 (Spinal puncture, therapeutic, for drainage of cerebrospinal fluid (by needle or catheter)). That means you can separately report follow-up care, provided you have supporting documentation. As you suggest, that care likely will fall in the area of 99231 (Subsequent hospital care, per day, for the evaluation and management of a patient, which requires at least 2 of these 3 key components ...), presuming the provider documented the follow-up care.
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Choose an E/M Code for Lumbar Drain Placement Follow-up
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