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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Qualifying Circumstances:

Turn to +99140 for True Emergencies: Tips Help You Decide

Published on Wed Feb 02, 2011

Watch 3 areas before expecting 2 extra units for emergency reporting.Reporting any qualifying circumstances (QC) codes for anesthesia can be tricky, but knowing when to classify a situation as a true emergency can be a real challenge unless you're well-versed in the emergency conditions guidelines. Check coding definitions and your provider's documentation to know whether you can legitimately add two extra units for +99140 (Anesthesia complicated by emergency conditions [specify] [List separately in addition to code for primary anesthesia procedure]) to your claim.Clarify Your 'Emergency' DefinitionCPT includes a note with +99140 stating that "an emergency is defined as existing when delay in treatment of the patient would lead to a significant increase in the threat to life or body parts." Your key to knowing a case meets emergency conditions lies in your anesthesiologist's notes."Quite a number of cases come in where the anesthesiologist marks 'emergency' but many times the 'emergency' [...]
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