Radiology Coding Alert

Question: What are the recent 2016 revisions for vascular embolization codes 37241-37244? Are there now any significant differences in these codes when compared to 2015?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: There are updates to the vascular embolization codes, 37241 (Vascular embolization or occlusion, inclusive of all radiological supervision and interpretation, intraprocedural roadmapping, and imaging guidance necessary to complete the intervention; venous, other than hemorrhage [e.g., congenital or acquired venous malformations, venous and capillary hemangiomas, varices, varicoceles]) - 37244 (Vascular embolization or occlusion, inclusive of all radiological supervision and interpretation, intraprocedural roadmapping, and imaging guidance necessary to complete the intervention; for arterial or venous hemorrhage or lymphatic extravasation), for 2016.

Recap of 2015: The 2015 manual added this text: “For vascular embolization procedures (CPT^® codes 37241-37244) physicians may separately report selective catheterization CPT^® codes. However, physicians should not separately report non-selective catheterization CPT^® codes for these procedures.”

What became new in 2016? The 2016 manual kept the 2015 language and added, “Vascular embolization procedures include associated radiological supervision and interpretation, intra-procedural guidance, road-mapping, and imaging necessary to document completion of the procedure. Angiography may be a separately reportable procedure with modifier 59 only if it satisfies guidelines for diagnostic angiography included in the ‘Vascular Embolization and Occlusion’ section of the CPT^® Manual, national Medicare guidelines, and local Medicare Administrative Contractor guidelines.”

Check the guidelines: Review CPT^® and Medicare guidelines before deciding whether a service qualifies as reportable angiogram. One helpful hint is that the new CCI language matches CPT^® guidelines found with 37241-37244.