You Be the Coder:
Fluoroscopy
Published on Wed Mar 01, 2000
I>Test your coding knowledge. Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.
">Question: We have a question that has been unresolved in our radiology group. When is it appropriate to use the 76000 or 76001 codes in addition to surgical codes and their corresponding supervision and interpretation codes?
Anonymous North Carolina Subscriber
Answer:CPT Codes 76000 (fluoroscopy [separate procedure], up to one hour physician time, other than 71023 or 71034 [e.g., cardiac fluoroscopy]) and 76001 (fluoroscopy, physician time more than one hour, assisting a non-radiologic physician [e.g., nephrostolithotomy, ERCP, bronchoscopy, transbronchial biopsy]) should not be used in conjunction with other S&I codes, according to Jane Stegall, CPC,Radiology Coder for HealthOne, a medical coding and billing service in Knoxville, Tenn.
These codes represent separate procedures and are appropriately used only as guidance codes when no other code fits. Code 76000 may be assigned to report up to one hour of a radiologists time, while 76001 is used to report more than one hour of a radiologists time, when providing fluoroscopy services to a non-radiologist during a procedure that requires fluoroscopy.
Code 76000, for example, may be reported for fluoroscopy guidance of less than one hour for needle placement and injection for magnetic resonance angiography.
Neither 76000 nor 76001 may be assigned if fluoroscopy is used during knee arthrography, for example. In this instance, the correct surgical code would be 27370 (injection procedure for knee arthrography), with 73580 (radiologic examination, knee, arthrography, radiological supervision and interpretation). Radiological supervision and interpretation code 73580 and 76000/76001 are mutually exclusive in this case.
Editors note: By definition, 76000 and 76001 should never be used to describe cardiac fluoroscopy. Code 71023 should be used to report radiologic examination, chest, two views, frontal and lateral; with fluoroscopy, while 71034 should be assigned to describe radiologic examination, chest, complete, minimum of four views; with fluoroscopy.
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