Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Our physician administered several injections to several nerves in a patient's wrist to treat chronic wrist pain due to an old injury. How do I report what he described as "median nerve injection"? Montana Subscriber Answer: You basically have two codes to select between, based on the anatomic site and nerves injected: 64450 (Injection, anesthetic agent; other peripheral nerve or branch) or 20526 (Injection, therapeutic [e.g., local anesthetic, corticosteroid], carpal tunnel). Here's the difference between the two codes: • In 64450, the physician injects a local anesthetic into the branch of the nerve being anesthetized for pain control or blockage. You use 64450 for nerve blocks of nerves that don't have a specific CPT code listed in the section of somatic nerve injections. • With 20526, the physician administers a single therapeutic injection of corticosteroid and/or anesthetic to  the wrist crease between the tendons of the radial flexor and [...]