Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert

These new high-tech codes take effect Jan. 1.

Warm up to the cardiology changes coming your way with a look at new-for-2010 Category III codes aimed at diagnosing coronary artery disease.

Match 0206T to MCG: One of the new Category III codes with a Jan. 1 implementation date is 0206T (Algorithmic analysis, remote, of electrocardiographic-derived data with computer probability assessment, including report), which is appropriate for Premier Heart's Multifunction CardioGram (MCG).

The service: The MCG uses a mathematical approach to diagnose heart disease, states Joseph Shen, MD, founder and co-developer of the MCG technology, in a press release.

Practices using the technology provide an in-office test similar to a resting ECG and then send the information to an MCG datacenter for analysis, which includes scoring the cardiac disease severity and listing differential diagnoses.

Catch this: The MCG system uses two leads. You may report a 12- lead ECG separately when performed, according to a note with the code. Choose from 93000- 93010 (Electrocardiogram, routine ECG with at least 12 leads...).

Flip to Cat. III for intravascular spectroscopy: For 2010, CPT also adds +0205T (Intravascular catheter-based coronary vessel or graft spectroscopy [e.g., infrared] during diagnostic evaluation and/or therapeutic intervention including imaging supervision, interpretation, and report, each vessel [List separately in addition to code for primary procedure]). The code describes a relatively new technology, such as InfraReDx, which physicians may use to identify lipid or cholesterol deposits in the vessel wall.

Don't miss: Code +0205T is an add-on code -- meaning you may not report it alone. A note instructs you to report it alongside the following codes, as appropriate:

• 92980 -- Transcatheter placement of an intracoronary stent[s], percutaneous, with or without other therapeutic intervention, any method; single vessel

• 92982 -- Percutaneous transluminal coronary balloon angioplasty; single vessel

• 92995 -- Percutaneous transluminal coronary atherectomy, by mechanical or other method, with or without balloon angioplasty; single vessel

• 93508-93533 -- Cardiac catheterization.

Keep in mind: Category III codes describe emerging technologies, so a typical practice might not use the devices these new codes describe, says Sandy Fuller,CPC, MCS-P, HIS supervisor and compliance officer for Cardiovascular Associates of East Texas.

But you need to keep track of available Category III codes. CPT guidelines state that if CPT offers a Category III code for a particular service, you must report that code instead of a Category I unlisted code. she says.