Cardiology Coding Alert

Here's why all is not lost even if 'crossed aortic valve' isn't in print. Inappropriately reporting 93510 when 93508 is more appropriate can result in a $13 payback to your Medicare contractor -- and a lot of worry about whether the error will encourage auditors to delve deeper into your files. Protect yourself: A full left heart catheterization (93510, Left heart catheterization, retrograde, from the brachial artery, axillary artery or femoral artery; percutaneous) requires the physician to cross over the aorta into the left ventricle. So you need the documentation to indicate in some way that the cardiologist crossed the aortic valve. 93510: If you see documentation of LVEDP (left ventricular end diastolic pressures), LV pressures, or an LV gram, these are hints that you should consider a left heart cath code, says Heather R. Stecker, CPC, ACSCA, compliance director and reimbursement manager for Cardiology Consultants of Philadelphia. In fact, "for [...]