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Anesthesia Coding Alert

READER QUESTIONS:

Coding Cervical Fusion With Instrumentation

Published on Wed Jan 28, 2009

Question: If the surgeon performs anterior cervical fusion with bone plug and instrumentation, is this anesthesia code 00600, or should I use 00670?

Arizona Subscriber

Answer: You should use 00670 (Anesthesia for extensive spine and spinal cord procedures [e.g., spinal instrumentation or vascular procedures]) for instrumentation,not 00600 (Anesthesia for procedures on cervical spine and cord; not otherwise specified).

Good news: Spinal instrumentation has a higher base unit value, so you should receive a higher reimbursement for it. Fishing for reimbursement is never a good idea, but in this scenario, spinal instrumentation is both accurate and worth more.

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