Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: The cardiologist introduced a catheter into the patient’s common femoral artery and advanced it into his aorta and performed an abdominal aortogram. Then the cardiologist removed the catheter. Which codes should I report for this procedure?

California Subscriber

Answer: You would report 36200 (Introduction of catheter, aorta) and 75625 (Aortography, abdominal, by serialography, radiological supervision and interpretation) for this service.

This is an example of nonselective catheterization. With nonselective catheterization, the cardiologist places the catheter directly into the desired blood vessel or organ. There is no manipulation, and the cardiologist does not advance the catheter into other branches of the vascular family or he only negotiates the catheter into a vessel like the thoracic or abdominal aorta or vena cava and then he removes it.