Cardiology Coding Alert

Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
Question: The cardiologist's operative report says, "Cutting balloon atherectomy to the right femoral artery and to the in-stent restenosis in the left iliac artery." Which code should I use for this service? Florida Subscriber Answer: The answer depends on what the cardiologist did. The cutting balloon bears some superficial resemblance to an atherectomy, which may be why the cardiologist used that term. More likely, the cardiologist performed an angioplasty using the cutting balloon (sometimes referred to as angiotomy). If this is the case, the correct coding would be as follows:

35473 Transluminal balloon angioplasty, percutaneous; iliac

35474 femoral-popliteal

75962-26 Transluminal balloon angioplasty, peripheral artery, radiological supervision and interpretation; professional component. If the cardiologist performed a true atherectomy, the following codes should be reported: 35492 Transluminal peripheral atherectomy, percutaneous; iliac 35493 femoral-popliteal 75992-26 Transluminal atherectomy, peripheral artery, radiological supervision and interpretation; professional component.