Pulmonology Coding Alert

Hint: Date of service is important when reporting codes like 95811.

Sleep studies and polysomnography are not one and the same, but pulmonologists perform both. Distinguishing between these services, and knowing which complaints or symptoms are covered by either a sleep study or polysomnography, will make all the difference when submitting claims for these services.

If you have questions about how to report sleep studies, read on for answers to the queries most frequently sent to Pulmonology Coding Alert.

FAQ 1. How do we differentiate a sleep study from polysomnography?

Usually, the patient is referred to a pulmonologist by a family physician when he presents with the symptoms. Your pulmonologist will schedule a sleep study or polysomnography to confirm the diagnosis.

Polysomnography is a sleep study that records many body functions including the brain's electrical activity, eye movement, muscle activity, heart rate, respiratory effort, airflow, and blood oxygen levels. Most polysomnography studies consist of about 16 channels and are used to diagnose several sleep disorders. Polysomnography differs from a sleep study in that it includes sleep staging.

In order for you to report polysomnography, sleep must be both recorded and staged. Polysomnography involves monitoring several activity levels during a minimum number of hours of sleep, usually about six. Generally, monitoring will include measuring the heart rate and rhythm, chest bands that measure respiration, and additional monitors that sense oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood. These physiological parameters of sleep must be continuous and simultaneously monitored and recorded for six or more hours with a subsequent physician review, interpretation and report. If a polysomnography is performed, you will report it using the following codes, depending upon the number of parameters tested:

• 95808 - Polysomnography; any age, sleep staging with 1-3 additional parameters of sleep, attended by a technologist
• 95810 -  Polysomnography; age 6 years or older, sleep staging with 4 or more additional parameters of sleep, attended by a technologist

FAQ 2. How should you code if CPAP is part of the procedure?

When suspecting obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the pulmonologist may opt for a split study that involves two steps. First, a polysomnography is performed where the patient's sleep is monitored. Once the patient's sleep has been monitored and the apnea witnessed and recorded, the second part of the study involves the treatment. The pulmonologist initiates continuous positive airway pressure ventilation (CPAP) and then monitors its effect.

You can report the treatment with 94660 (Continuous positive airway pressure ventilation [CPAP], initiation and management) but only when the initiation of CPAP does not occur during the course of the split night study, and the patient must be brought back to the office at a later time. Given the guidelines required by polysomnography, the study may have started, but not enough data may have been collected to allow for the fitting and administering of CPAP during the single encounter. However, if enough data are collected to warrant CPAP initiation during the session, you will report the split sleep study code 95811 (Polysomnography; age 6 years or older, sleep staging with 4 or more additional parameters of sleep, with initiation of continuous positive airway pressure therapy or bilevel ventilation, attended by a technologist).

This code bundles the polysomnography with the CPAP treatment, appropriate when the two procedures are performed during the same study. Do not report separate components, 95810 on day one, and 94660 on day two in this case. It is important to have the documentation supporting the code used readily available.

FAQ 3: Did the physician administer bilevel ventilation?

Although central sleep apnea is reported similarly to obstructive sleep apnea, it involves different symptoms and requires a different treatment plan. The patient undergoes a similar split sleep study. The polysomnography portion must meet the same guidelines as obstructive sleep apnea. However, in central sleep apnea, the second half of the study involves bilevel ventilation rather than CPAP. The same rules apply – codes 95810 and 94660 cannot be reported if the procedures are provided during a single sleep study encounter; they would be bundled and you will report only 95811.

Sometimes the pulmonologist may decide to perform a CPAP study if she notices changes in the conditions of patients already on CPAP. For example, they may have an increase in snoring or they may feel sleepier. You would report this service using the same code - 95811.