Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: I noticed that the descriptor for 75960 says to code for each vessel. Would you give me an example of how to use this?


Wisconsin Subscriber

Answer: The point here is that you need to report the codes for each vessel rather than each stent.

One-vessel example: The physician places two stents in the contralateral external iliac (with no diagnostic angiography or angioplasty).

You should report access code 36246 once (Selective catheter placement, arterial system; initial second-order abdominal, pelvic, or lower-extremity artery branch, within a vascular family), surgical component code 37205 once (Transcatheter placement of an intravascular stent[s] [except coronary, carotid, and vertebral vessel], percutaneous; initial vessel), and supervision and interpretation code 75960 once (Transcatheter introduction of intravascular stent[s] [except coronary, carotid and vertebral vessel], percutaneous and/or open, radiological supervision and interpretation, each vessel).

So your claim should look like this:

• 36246
• 37205
• 75960-26 (Professional component).

Two-vessel example: The physician places one stent in the right common iliac artery and one stent in the right external iliac artery, again by a contralateral approach without diagnostic angiography or angioplasty.
 
Report 36247 once (... initial third-order or more selective abdominal, pelvic, or lower-extremity artery branch, within a vascular family), 37205 once, +37206 once (Transcatheter placement of an intravascular stent[s] [except coronary, carotid, and vertebral vessel], percutaneous; each additional vessel [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]), and 75960 twice.

So your claim should look like this:

• 36247
• 37205
• 37206
• 75960-26 x 2.

Caution: The codes for stent placement include a number of services that you should not code separately. These include follow-up angiography and codes representing angioplasty for deploying and placing the stent.