Anesthesia Coding Alert

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Catch All Time With Vaginal/C-Section Case

Question: How should I report time on a single claim when a patient converts from a vaginal delivery to a cesarean section? A local carrier requests that we report both services (01967 and 01968) on a single electronic claim. How do we do that when we can only list one start and one stop time?

Ohio Subscriber

Answer: Report the entire procedure on one claim form as the carrier requests, with one start and stop time.
 
Submit codes 01967 (Neuraxial labor analgesia/anesthesia for planned vaginal delivery [this includes any repeat subarachnoid needle placement and drug injection and/or any necessary replacement of an epidural catheter during labor]) and +01968 (Anesthesia for cesarean delivery following neuraxial labor analgesia/anesthesia [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure performed]). Document the amount of time for the labor epidural versus the c-section in the "Remarks" box of the claim.

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