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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Anesthesia for Status Asthmaticus

Published on Thu Feb 01, 2001

Question: If general anesthesia is given in the operating room to treat status asthmaticus and the anesthesiologist and the requesting physician do nothing else, what anesthesia code should we use?

Maine Subscriber

Answer: The best code is 01999 (unlisted anesthesia procedure[s]), because nothing else really fits. Ask the referring physician for a written report stating his or her reasons for requesting general anesthesia.
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