Anesthesia Coding Alert

One of the biggest changes to the anesthesia section of CPT Codes for 2002 was the addition of a new subsection of codes for obstetrical services and the deletion of several related codes. With obstetrical anesthesia being such a complex area of care, practitioners and coders welcome the changes as a way to report services more accurately and need to know how to use the new codes correctly.
First Things First: the New Codes
In the past, codes for obstetrical anesthesia were included in the "lower abdomen" and "perineum" sections of CPT, buried among codes for procedures such as "anesthesia for vaginal procedures" or "anesthesia for intraperitoneal procedures in lower abdomen." In addition to making them easier to find, establishing the new codes as an independent subsection allows them to be more specific for reporting. The new codes (and their associated base units) are:
    CPT 01960 anesthesia for; vaginal delivery only (5)

CPT 01961 cesarean delivery only (7)
CPT 01962 urgent hysterectomy following delivery (8)

CPT 01963 cesarean hysterectomy without any labor analgesia/anesthesia care (8)
CPT 01964 abortion procedures (4)

CPT 01967 neuraxial labor analgesia/anesthesia for planned vaginal delivery (this includes any repeat subarachnoid needle placement and drug injection and/or any necessary replacement of an epidural catheter during labor) (5)
+CPT 01968 cesarean delivery following neuraxial labor analgesia/anesthesia (list separately in addition to code for primary procedure) (2)

+CPT 01969 cesarean hysterectomy following neuraxial labor analgesia/anesthesia (list separately in addition to code for primary procedure) (5).
Anesthesia for abortion procedures (01964) was previously reported with 00940 (anesthesia for vaginal procedures [including biopsy of labia, vagina, cervix or endometrium]; not otherwise specified). This code still exists, but is no longer used for abortion procedures. Many coders are optimistic that having the new, specific code for abortion procedures will make more carriers understand the diagnosis.

The Role of Add-On Codes
The creation of two add-on codes means that sometimes two codes may be used to report anesthesia services add-on codes +01968 and +01969 should each be used along with the primary procedure code 01967 as appropriate. This is the first time anesthesia has had add-on codes, which many practitioners think are needed due to the increased risk, postoperative complications and preoperative conditions requiring one of the add-on services.
 
For example, an epidural is placed for a planned vaginal delivery (01967), but something happens during labor and a cesarian section is required. The carrier understands the situation better because the service is coded as 01967, +01968. Using the two codes gives a [...]