Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: How should we bill the procedure and medication for a ketorolac tromethamine injection?

Rhode Island Subscriber

Answer: Ketorolac tromethamine is available for intravenous or intramuscular administration, so double check your provider's technique before reporting either:

• 96372 -- Therapeutic, prophylactic, or diagnostic injection (specify substance or drug); subcutaneous or intramuscular

• 96374 -- Intravenous push, single or initial substance/drug.

If your physician administered the injection in conjunction with an anesthetic, the injection would be bundled into the routine postoperative care and included in the anesthesia global fee. If, however, you're able to report the injection separately, choose the appropriate procedure code and report the medication with J1885 (Injection, ketorolac tromethamine, per 15 mg).

Calculation: Be sure to capture the correct amount of billing units for J1885. The common dosage is 60mg intramuscularly for the initial injection, which equals 4 billing units.