Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: I’m coding for a case where the patient was given two labor epidurals within 24 hours. She had the first epidural for labor from 10:21-10:46 p.m. The patient experienced pain and the physicians decided later to replace the epidural. The second one was in place from 4:25-4:50 a.m. How should we report this to show two epidural placements?

California Subscriber

Answer: Although the anesthesia provider placed an epidural twice, you only need one code: 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]).

Explanation: The notation of the code including repeat needle placement and injection prevents you from submitting the code twice. You should, however, report the minutes associated with each placement so your provider will be paid for the correct amount of time involved.