Primary Care Coding Alert

Question: How should I bill for trigger point injections with Xylocaine?

Rhode Island Subscriber

Answer: CPT includes two codes for trigger point injections, based on the number of muscles your physician injects: 20552 (Injection[s]; single or multiple trigger point[s], one or two muscle[s]) and 20553 (- single or multiple trigger point[s], three or more muscles).

You should not separately report the Xylocaine itself. The existing Xylocaine code (J2001, Injection, lidocaine HCl for intravenous infusion, 10 mg) represents an intravenously injected drug, and Xylocaine is included in the direct practice expenses attributed to the trigger point codes in Medicare's resource-based relative value scale. Thus, the NCCI bundles J2001 into the injection codes.

Answers to You Be the Coder and Reader Questions reviewed by Kent J. Moore, manager of Health Care Financing and Delivery Systems for the American Academy of Family Physicians in Leawood, Kan.