Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Can we report anesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy? If so, what is the correct code?


Oregon Subscriber

Answer: Yes, you can report anesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy. The codes for electroconvulsive therapy (90870, Electroconvulsive therapy [includes necessary monitoring]; single seizure; and 90871, - multiple seizures, per day) cross to anesthesia code 00104 (Anesthesia for electroconvulsive therapy).

Some coders wonder about reporting 01995 (Regional intravenous administration of local anesthetic agent or other medication [upper or lower extremity]) for this case, but 00104 describes the procedure better. Save 01995 for regional anesthesia of one extremity, not for something as short-term as anesthesia during electroconvulsive therapy.