Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: If our anesthesiologist places an epidural catheter for a patient's labor, we only charge one time. If the anesthesiologist places an epidural for pain management and checks on the patient later that same day, we don't charge -- but if he sees the patient again the next day, we do bill the service. Our physicians are questioning whether this is correct protocol. Can you verify what we should be doing? West Virginia Subscriber Answer: The correct way to handle the situation depends on the circumstances. Option 1: If the anesthesiologist uses the same catheter for the pain management epidural that he used to administer anesthesia during the procedure, you cannot bill the epidural for that day. You can, however, report 01996 (Daily hospital management of epidural or subarachnoid continuous drug administration) for pain management services associated with the epidural the next day.Option 2: If the anesthesiologist places the epidural exclusively [...]