Throat Coding:
Bust 4 Myths to Breathe Easy When Submitting Tracheotomy Claims
Published on Tue Feb 28, 2012
Beware separate-procedure status of planned tracheostomy. If you're making assumptions about how to report tracheostomy procedures, you could be costing your practice precious dollars. To ensure this won't happen to you, let our experts guide you through these four steps to master tracheostomy coding. Myth #1: A Planned Trach is No Different than an Emergency One. CPT makes a primary distinction between "planned" and "emergency" tracheostomy, and therefore you must determine which of these conditions best describes the procedure when selecting a code. So what's the difference? "An emergency procedure is just that," says M. Tray Dunaway, MD, FACS, CSP, a surgeon, author, speaker and coding educator with Healthcare Value Inc. in Camden, S.C. "Essentially, the patient is immediately imperiled if the physician doesn't perform the procedure." In other words, the patient's airway is so compromised that he is already obstructed or may obstruct at any moment. Use common sense: [...]