CCI 18.1 Update:
Skip Selective Catheter Placement with Vessel Repair
Published on Thu May 10, 2012
Plus, don't mix new compression codes with manipulation.Certain CPT® 2012 codes that dodged Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edit pairs in January are all bundled up as of April 1, 2012. That means you'll need to use caution when billing certain vascular injection and blood vessel repair codes together. Read on to learn other changes that general surgery coders need to know.CCI version 18.1 reveals a fairly light update, with 358 new edit pairs and 23 terminated pairs. For new pairs, surgery dominated with over 90 percent of both column 1 and column 2 codes, said Frank D. Cohen, MPA, MBB, senior analyst with The Frank Cohen Group, LLC, in his analysis of the changes. Avoid 36251 with 35231 and BeyondCCI 18.1 adds nearly 50 edit pairs with the following blood vessel repair codes in the column 2 position:35231 -- Repair blood vessel with vein graft; neck35236 -- ... upper extremity35256 -- ... lower [...]