Watch Injection Codes With Ob Services
Published on Fri Aug 08, 2003
Anesthesia-specific information sometimes gets lost in the long lists of National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits. But the latest version of edits (version 9.2), implemented July 1, included some edits that you should know about.
The edits paired several injection codes with virtually all maternity-care codes associated with excision, repair, delivery, abortion and other procedures. The injection codes are:
62311 - Injection, single (not via indwelling catheter), not including neurolytic substances, with or without contrast (for either localization or epidurography), of diagnostic or therapeutic substance(s) (including anesthetic, antispasmodic, opioid, steroid, other solution), epidural or subarachnoid; cervical or thoracic
64430* - Injection, anesthetic agent; pudendal nerve
64435* - ... paracervical (uterine) nerve
64483 - Injection, anesthetic agent and/or steroid, transforaminal epidural; lumbar or sacral, single level. Bundling these codes means that the injection is considered part of the more comprehensive maternity code. "Including these in the Ob codes is intended to prevent anesthesiologists from billing for an injection in addition to 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])," says Barbara Johnson, CPC, MPC, coder with Loma Linda University Anesthesiology Medical Group in Loma Linda, Calif.
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