Cardiology Coding Alert
Link the Right CHF Codes to Biventricular Procedures
Question: Wisconsin Subscriber Answer: At some point, your carrier may use this substantial revision to further limit reimbursement for biventricular and other procedures. For example, carriers may specify that a patient must have systolic heart failure to justify medical necessity for biventricular implantation. Additionally, carriers may remove the now-unspecified code (428.0) from the list of covered diagnoses because physicians should always code to the highest level of specificity. Carriers will dictate the timeframe, scope and impact of this change and will most likely revise or create new local medical review policies. You should keep an eye on carrier publications. In the meantime, you should update your billing systems to accommodate the new range of heart-failure codes and orient physicians and billing staff to them. When physicians implant biventricular devices, the documentation should reflect indications to the degree of specificity required to implement accurately the new heart-failure codes.
The latest ICD-9 codes expand heart failure from one code (428.0) to 15 codes, which specify systolic, diastolic, acute, chronic, or acute on chronic heart failure.
Cardiology Coding Alert
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Unsuccessful Pacemaker Insertion
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Question: How should we code the following procedure? The cardiologist repositioned a dual-chamber pacemaker from [...] - Reader Question:
Correct Pocket Revision Denial
Question: Can we bill 33233 (Removal of permanent pacemaker pulse generator) and 33222 (Revision or [...] - Reader Question:
Link the Right CHF Codes to Biventricular Procedures
Question: One of our cardiologists diagnosed a 50-year-old patient with congestive heart failure (CHF) with [...] - Reader Question:
Code Induced Fibrillation With ICD Implants
Question: Please explain how to code the following procedure: One of our patients had biventricular [...] - Reader Question:
CCI Version 9.0 Addresses Ultrasonic Guidance With TEE
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Intravascular Ultrasound Bundled With LHC?
Question: One of our managed-care plans insists that 92978 should be bundled with left heart [...] - Reader Question:
Check Viability Scanning
Question: What is a viability scan and how should I code it? One of our [...] - Reader Question:
Beware Lesion Detours When Coding Angiograms
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Keep an Eye on Angioplasties Below the Knee
Question: One of our cardiologists performed a right superficial femoral angiogram with runoff, then a [...] - Reader Question:
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Question: Would you give me some direction on how to bill for interrogation, analysis and [...] - You Be the Coder:
Untangle PCP Referral Challenges
Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the [...]
