Advanced Search

Radiology Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Knowing Terms Is Key

Published on Sat Jan 22, 2005

Question: What are the rules on reporting aortography codes CPT 75625 (Aortography, abdominal, by serialography, radiological supervision and interpretation) or 75630 (Aortography, abdominal plus bilateral iliofemoral lower extremity, catheter, by serialography, radiological supervision and interpretation) with 75736 (Angiography, pelvic, selective or supraselective, radiological supervision and interpretation)?

South Carolina Subscriber
 
Answer: You are allowed to code either 75625 or 75630 with 75736, but the trick is knowing when 75736 is accurate.
 
For you to accurately report 75736, the catheter has to be selectively placed in a pelvic artery, so you need to know what these terms mean.
 
Physicians sometimes say that a pelvic arteriogram was done, when in fact the catheter was not selectively placed in a pelvic artery. In this situation, the physician is referring to a nonselective pelvic arterial study. (A pelvic artery is the internal iliac - also known as the hypogastric - and its branches, or the middle sacral artery and its branches.)
 
To qualify as selectively placed, the physician must manipulate the catheter through a first-, second- and/or third-order artery in one of these vascular families. Selective or supraselective pelvic angiography is rarely but occasionally performed together with lower-extremity "run-off" angiography. A nonselective view of the pelvic blood vessels is more common and shouldn't be separately coded or billed, since these images are included in the run-off study.

Other Articles in this issue of

Radiology Coding Alert

View All