Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: My cardiologist introduced a catheter into the patient’s common femoral artery and advanced it into his aorta. Then my cardiologist removed the catheter. Which CPT^® code should I report for this service?

Alaska Subscriber

Answer: You should report 36200 (Introduction of catheter, aorta) for this service.

Don’t miss: This is an example of nonselective catheterization, where the cardiologist places the catheter into the desired blood vessel. 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.