Anesthesia Coding Alert

Tip: Knowing each line's purpose can help your chances of separate pay. Getting paid for anesthesia during cardiac cases often isn't as complicated as some other procedures -- until your provider starts using multiple monitoring lines. The next time your anesthesiologist uses a Swan-Ganz catheter during cardiac surgery, follow these tips for claims success. 1. Understand Each Line's Purpose An anesthesia provider often uses multiple lines during complicated heart cases, for different purposes. The most common categories include: A Swan-Ganz catheter (93503, Insertion and placement of flow directed catheter [e.g., Swan-Ganz] for monitoring purposes) monitors pulmonary artery pressure and measures cardiac output and other cardiovascular functions. Anesthesiologists typically place a Swan-Ganz in patients who have some type of cardiac condition, or whose cardiac function might be compromised prior to or during surgery, says Judy A. Wilson, CPC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CANPC, CMBSI, CMRS, business administrator for Anesthesia Specialists, PTR, in Virginia [...]