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Cardiology Coding Alert

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Fractional Flow Reserve During Stent Placement

Published on Sat Jun 01, 2002

Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
Question: The cardiologist places a stent to treat stenosis of the left circumflex artery. According to the notes, "intracoronary fractional flow reserve" was also performed. Is this included in the stent? Colorado Subscriber     Answer: No. Coronary flow reserve, or fractional flow reserve study, may be reported separately when performed with many procedures, including stents and other interventions. It is one method of evaluating blood flow through a stenotic lesion in a vessel. Regardless of the method used, report the service using +93571 (Intravascular Doppler velocity and/or pressure derived coronary flow reserve measurement [coronary vessel or graft] during coronary angiography including pharmacologically induced stress; initial vessel [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) and, when necessary, 93572 (... each additional vessel [list separately in addition to code for primary procedure]).
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