General Surgery Coding Alert

Distinguish +36148, 75791.If your surgeon performs an arteriovenous (AV) shunt introduction for diagnostic studies, you can't afford to miss the CPT® guidelines about what's included and what you can separately report.Begin here: The guidelines, new in CPT® 2012, help clarify reporting for 36147 (Introduction of needle and/or catheter, arteriovenous shunt created for dialysis [graft/fistula]; initial access with complete radiological evaluation of dialysis access, including fluoroscopy, image documentation and report [includes access of shunt, injection(s) of contrast, and all necessary imaging from the arterial anastomosis and adjacent artery through entire venous outflow including the inferior or superior vena cava]). Your surgeon might use 36147 when a patient with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is having trouble with his AV shunt for dialysis and requires an evaluation.Grasp the Procedure"For diagnostic studies, the arteriovenous (AV) dialysis shunt (AV shunt) is defined as beginning with the arterial anastomosis [opening between two normally separate structures] and [...]