Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: Are there any changes relevant to pain management or neurology that we should be on the lookout for when CPT^® releases its 2021 manual?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: Aside from the sea change in office/outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) service coding, there isn’t much to get excited about in CPT^® 2021. Considering how challenging the new E/M rules will be to get a handle on, maybe a lack of important changes isn’t such a bad thing for 2021.

There are, however, a few deletions that you might want to note. These codes will be invalid as of January, 1, 2021:

• 0228T (Injection(s), anesthetic agent and/or steroid, transforaminal epidural, with ultrasound guidance, cervical or thoracic; single level)
• 0229T (… each additional level (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure))
• 0230T (Injection(s), anesthetic agent and/or steroid, transforaminal epidural, with ultrasound guidance, lumbar or sacral; single level)
• 0231T (… each additional level (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure))

Note: No official guidance yet on what codes you might use instead of the above codes; check with your payer to see how they would like you to code these injections in 2021.