Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: One of our anesthesiologists recently provided services during an excision of an occipital lipoma. How should I code for this?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

Answer: You should report 00300 (Anesthesia for all procedures on the integumentary system, muscles and nerves of head, neck and posterior trunk, not otherwise specified).

Note: The excisions made by the surgeon might be superficial, so verify whether your physician administered MAC (monitored anesthesia care) during the procedure. If so, you should check your payer's guidelines to determine whether to append modifier QS (Monitored anesthesia care service) to 00300.

Occipital lipoma is a benign tumor composed of fatty tissue that occurs on the back of the head. The tumor can be small and still require monitored anesthesia care (MAC), or be large and require general anesthesia (GA) or a scalp nerve block