Question: I have a report for a small intestine endoscopy, where the physician found an actively bleeding angiodysplasia. The provider found the angiodysplasia in the jejunum and treated it.
What codes should I report for the procedure?
Louisiana Subscriber
Answer: You’ll assign 44366 (Small intestinal endoscopy, enteroscopy beyond second portion of duodenum, not including ileum; with control of bleeding (eg, injection, bipolar cautery, unipolar cautery, laser, heater probe, stapler, plasma coagulator)) to report the endoscopy of the patient’s small intestine. According to the January 2025 issue of CPT® Assistant, “If an angiodysplasia is seen beyond the second portion of the duodenum or jejunum but not in the ileum, and it is actively bleeding and is treated, it would be appropriate to report code 44366.”
Next, you’ll open the ICD-10-CM code book to locate the correct diagnosis code for the angiodysplasia that was actively bleeding at the time of the procedure. Search for angiodysplasia (cecum) (colon) in the Alphabetic Index. Follow the indentation to with bleeding to locate K55.21 (Angiodysplasia of colon with hemorrhage), which you’ll verify in the Tabular List.
Mike Shaughnessy, BA, CPC, Development Editor, AAPC
