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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Blood Patch

Published on Sun Apr 01, 2001

Question: What are the correct CPT Codes and ASA codes for billing a blood patch used to treat a patient with a spinal headache?

Arkansas Subscriber

Answer: The most appropriate diagnosis code to justify the anesthesia administered is 349.9 (unspecified disorders of nervous system). The procedure is coded as 62273* (injection, epidural, of blood or clot patch). An ASA crosswalk code does not exist because most patients do not require anesthesia during the procedure. And, because in most cases the anesthesiologist performs the blood patch instead of administering anesthesia for another physician to do it, you use the surgical procedure code instead of an anesthesia code.
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