CPT 2000 Changes for Anesthesia Practices
Published on Wed Dec 01, 1999
No new anesthesia codes were added to CPT 2000, but 13 existing codes were revised, and 11 were deleted. Many of these changes were made in a effort to help align CPT codes with the current AMA (American Medical Association) codes, according to Stanley Stead, MD, advisor to the CPT Advisory Panel for the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Other reasons for the changes included:
- Making anesthesia codes consistent with surgical codes for the same procedure
- Consolidating codes if the procedures involved essentially the same level of
anesthetic management
- Correcting duplicate codes
- Clarifying definitions to help eliminate confusion between similar codes
- Expanding the use of codes to include more procedures
- Correcting or elaborating on definitions that were too restrictive
Definitions for the affected codes are provided below, but please consult the 2000 CPT for complete information.
Revised Anesthesia Codes
- Head
00100Anesthesia for procedures on salivary glands, including biopsy
00102Anesthesia for procedures on plastic repair of cleft lip
00103Anesthesia for reconstructive procedures of eyelid (eg, blepharoplasty, ptosis
surgery)
00214Anesthesia for burr holes, including ventriculography
- Neck
00300Anesthesia for all procedures on the integumentary system, muscles and nerves of head, neck, and posterior trunk, not otherwise specified
- Thorax (Chest Wall and Shoulder Girdle)
00400Anesthesia for procedures on the integumentary system on the extremities, anterior trunk and perineum; not otherwise specified
- Intrathoracic
00520Anesthesia for closed chest procedures; (including bronchoscopy) not otherwise specified
00528Anesthesia for mediastinoscopy and diagnostic thoracoscopy
- Upper Abdomen
00740Anesthesia for upper gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures, endoscope introduced proximal to duodenum
-p Lower Abdomen
00810Anesthesia for lower intestinal endoscopic procedures, endoscope introduced distal to duodenum
00857Neuraxial analgesia/anesthesia for labor ending in cesarean delivery (includes any repeat subarachnoid needle placement and drug injection and/or any necessary replacement of an epidural catheter during labor)
-p Perineum
00918Anesthesia with fragmentation, manipulation and/or removal of ureteeral calculus
00952Anesthesia for hysteroscopy and/or hysterosalpingography
00955Neuraxial analgesia/anesthesia for labor ending in a vaginal delivery (includes any repeat subarachnoid needle placement and drug injection and/or any necessary replacement of an epidural catheter during labor)
CPT 2000s New Modifier
The layout of CPT 2000 is basically the same as the 1999 version, so you wont notice any big changes up front. The front cover still includes a quick-reference list of modifiers, with one new addition, modifier -91 (repeat clinical diagnostic laboratory test). All modifiers are described in detail in Appendix A.
The symbols used throughout the book to denote additions, revisions or other matters are the same as in 1999. New codes are indicated with the large red dot before the code number. Codes with substantial revisions have a blue triangle before the code number. The black symbols appear on [...]
