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General Surgery Coding Alert

CPT® 2013:

8 New Codes Merge Catheter Placement + Angiography

Published on Tue Dec 18, 2012

Yield to hierarchy to dodge denials. Following the trend to create more comprehensive vascular codes that include all aspects of a service, CPT® 2013 adds eight new codes you need to know for diagnostic studies of cervicocerebral arteries. Anatomically, the new codes relate to vessels in the neck and head, says Terry A. Fletcher, BS, CPC, CCS-P, CCS, CEMC, CCC, CMSCS, CMC, of California-based Terry Fletcher Consulting. Similar to renal angiography codes 36251-36254 added in CPT® 2012, new CPT® 2013 codes 36221-+36228 include catheterization, angiography, and radiological supervision and interpretation. That’s a significant shift from past coding, which required separate codes for catheter placement and radiological services, Fletcher notes. Because of this change, CPT® 2013 deletes angiography codes 75650 and 75660-75685 for the carotid, cerebral, vertebral, and cervical arteries, says Julie Graham, BA, CPC, coder and compliance specialist for Concentra in Texas. What’s included: Codes 36221-36226, which are primary rather [...]
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