ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert

Question: What is the minimum requirement for reporting 30901? Is packing the bare minimum? If a physician sprays with Afrin, clamps the patient's nose for 15 minutes and, after observing no more bleeding, sends the patient home without packing or cautery, and instructs the patient to use ocean spray, can I report 30901?

Oregon Subscriber

Answer: The answer to your question is no. To report 30901* (Control nasal hemorrhage, anterior, simple [limited cautery and/or packing] any method), the physician must have used some type of cautery (such as a silver nitrate stick) or some minimal packing (such as a temporary pledget). Afrin is a vasoconstrictor, but it doesn't qualify as cautery, during which the end of the vessel must be burned somehow.

In addition, to report 30903* (Control nasal hemorrhage, anterior, complex [extensive cautery and/or packing] any method), the physician must use either extensive cautery, such as multiple attempts using a simple method (a silver nitrate stick) or a more involved cautery (cocaine packing or electrocautery), or extensive packing, which would entail more than a temporary pledget and would include a nasal tampon or formal Vaseline gauze.