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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Anesthesiologist Can't Charge for Blood Spinning

Published on Sat May 08, 2010

Question: We have an anesthesiologist who does what he calls a blood spinning procedure during patient surgery. What exactly is this, and is it something I can bill for? If so, what code or codes would I use? Pennsylvania SubscriberAnswer: Although more information about the process might help your case, this is probably not a billable service. This is because your anesthesiologist is paid through the time element of the procedure. Tracking blood coagulation, sugars, and red blood cell volume are considered part of monitoring. Additional payment is  sually not provided to the anesthesia personnel for this.The term "blood spinning" is not a recognized medical term, so it may describe one of a few similar procedures. Your physician may be referring to an ACT, which is "activated clotting time" or "activated coagulation time" and is represented by CPT code 85347 (Coagulation time; activated). The process may also be a hematocrit [...]
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