Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert
New Septal Defect Repair Edits Make 95380-95381 More Confusing
Observation care,swallowing test interpretation also hit hard The Centers forMedicare & Medicaid Services introduced two new codes for repair of septal defect in 2003: 93580 (for closure of a congenital interatrial communiation) and CPT 93581 (for closure of a congenital ventricular septal defect with implant). Now CCI 10.2 bundles dozens of codes with both 93580 and 93581, including pacemaker insertion code 33210; endovascular aortic aneurysm repair code 34812; fluo-roscopy code 76000; therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic injection codes 90782-90784 and cardiovascular medicine codes 93040-93042 and 93561-93562. The new CCI edits make 93580 and 93581 the comprehensive codes for blood vessel repair codes 35201-35206, 35226, 35261-35266 and 35286 and vascular injection codes 36010, 36013-36015, 36555-36556 and 36558-36559. Observation care will become harderto bill in July. Observation care codes 99217-99220 and 99234-99236 became mutually exclusive with G0244 (Observation care provided by a facility to a patient with CHF, chest pain, or asthma, minimum eight hours, maximum 48 hours). Three codes forphysician interpretation of swallowing and/or laryngeal testing (92613, 92615 and 92617) will become the comprehensive codes for a number of other codes. Starting in July, you can't bill any of those codes with cineradiography/videoradiography codes 76120-76125, laryngeal function studies code 92520 or evaluation codes 92610-92611. Clinical pathology consultation codes 80500-80502 became components of microbiology codes 87267-87269, 87271 and 87660. New code 89220 (Sputum, obtaining specimen, aerosol-induced technique) became a component of endoscopy codes 31615-31656, plus several other respiratory system surgery codes and pulmonary medicine code 94640.
Also, 93580 and 93581 are both components of septal repair codes 33647-33670. In addition, 93580 will be a component of septal repair codes 33641-33645. And 93581 will be a component of septal repair codes 33681-33688, 33692-33697, sinus of vasalvia repair code 33710 and transposition of the great vessels codes 33770-33781.
Part B Insider (Multispecialty) Coding Alert
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New Septal Defect Repair Edits Make 95380-95381 More Confusing
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