Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: We had a patient with mental retardation who underwent a pharmacologically induced stress test (93350). We provided monitored anesthesia care due to the patient's mental status. The problem is that 93350 has no crosswalk to anesthesia. Do you have any suggestions on how to code this?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: Under normal circumstances, anesthesia may not be necessary for this procedure. But because of the patient's status, you should use 01999 (Unlisted anesthesia procedure[s]). Depending on the payer, monitored anesthesia care (MAC) may be medically necessary under a number of circumstances, including for patients with Parkinson's disease (332.x), mental retardation (317-319), or cerebral palsy (343.x, Infantile cerebral palsy or 437.8, Other and ill-defined cerebrovascular disease; other).