General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: Our surgeon is monitoring cardiac pressure with a Swan-Ganz catheter. What is the appropriate diagnosis code for this?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: Swan-Ganz catheters are right heart catheters that remain inside the patient for monitoring. Typically, but not always, a Swan-Ganz is placed in patients who have some type of cardiac condition. Your surgeon's documentation should include the specific reason the monitoring is necessary. A diagnosis such as congestive heart failure (428.0) supports the use of the Swan-Ganz monitor.

Advice for You Be the Coder and Reader Questions was provided by Marcella Bucknam, CPC, a general surgery coding and reimbursement specialist and a coding instructor at Clarkson College in Omaha, Neb.; Susan Callaway, CPC, CCS-P, a coding and reimbursement specialist and educator in North Augusta, S.C.; Barbara Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC, CPC-H, a coding and reimbursement specialist and president of Cash Flow Solutions, a medical billing firm in Lakewood, N.J.; M. Trayser Dunaway, MD, a general surgeon in private practice in Camden, S.C.; Elaine Elliott, CPC, a general surgery coding and reimbursement specialist in Jensen Beach, Fla.; Linda Laghab, CPC, coding manager with the Pediatric Group, a multispecialty pediatric practice at Los Angeles Children's Hospital; Kathy Mueller, RN, CPC, CCS-P, a general surgery coding and reimbursement specialist in Lenzburg, Ill.; and Jan Rasmussen, CPC, a general surgery coding and reimbursement specialist in Eau Claire, Wis. q