Wiki Looking for Opinion on Anesthesia Auditing

[suemt]

Are there any guidelines on which procedures warrant anesthesia? And if so, do they indicate what type of anesthesia?

I've got a situation where I think the wrong anesthesia codes are being billed, but I need something more specific to be able to go back to the provider/biller and tell them WHY I think it is wrong.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[thomas7331]

This sounds more like a clinical question you'd want to direct to an anesthesiologist rather than a coder. Whether or not a procedure warrants anesthesia and what kind of anesthesia would depend on the clinical circumstances of the patient's condition. I'm not aware of any written guidelines in the coding area on this. Sorry to not be more help.