Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Can you give me a specific example of when the new obstetrical anesthesia CPT 01960 (Anesthesia for; vaginal delivery only) would be used? We have never billed a vaginal delivery only without any type of anesthesia; we generally use 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]). Florida Subscriber Answer: Any CPT code beginning with "0" designates that anesthesia was provided for a procedure. Therefore, code 01960 means the anesthesia professional provided anesthesia for a procedure that only involved a vaginal delivery (in other words, it didn't lead to any other procedures afterward). It is similar to code 01967, but 01967 requires that the anesthesia provided be neuraxial.

Patients can have other types of anesthesia for complications during a vaginal delivery; in that case general anesthesia or MAC may be given, and code 01960 would be reported. Likewise, 01961 means that anesthesia was supplied during a cesarean section with no other procedures before or after it; the patient had a c-section during that operative period and nothing else.