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Cardiology Coding Alert

You Be the Coder:

Temporary Dialysis Catheter Placement

Published on Mon Oct 01, 2001

Test your coding knowledge.  Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.

 
Question: How should I code the following procedure? "The right femoral artery was prepped and draped with a sterile technique. Wire was placed in the right femoral artery using modified Seldinger technique, confirmed under fluoroscopy. A 12 French dialysis catheter is placed."

Maryland Subscriber
  Answer: Dialysis is a prolonged infusion; therefore, the correct code for the placement of a dialysis catheter is 36620 (arterial catheterization or cannulation for sampling, monitoring or transfusion [separate procedure]; percutaneous). To select the right code, you need to know the location of the insertion and the technique used (percutaneous or cutdown). Neither the brand name of the device nor the reason the device was placed should be considered when selecting the correct code.
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