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Gastroenterology Coding Alert

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43255, Your Go-To Code for EGD With Bleed Control

Published on Thu Feb 10, 2011

Question: How should I report an EGD with Argon plasma coagulation performed by our gastroenterologist for control of bleeding?Answer: APC, short for Argon plasma coagulation, is a procedure for control of an actively bleeding lesion or it can be used to destroy a lesion suspected of being a bleeding site or abnormal tissue (ablation). When a physician performs it during EGD and finds an actively bleeding site, you would report 43255 (Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy including esophagus, stomach and either the duodenum and/or jejunum as appropriate; with control of bleeding, any method). If the physician finds no active bleeding but finds a lesion suspected of being a prior source of bleeding, and uses APC to ablate the lesion, then you would report 43258 (Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy including esophagus, stomach, and either the duodenum and/or jejunum as appropriate; with ablation of tumor(s), polyp(s), or other lesion(s) not amenable to removal by hot [...]
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