Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: What documentation is required to bill "assistant at surgery" for a-fib ablation procedures? These are extremely long procedures that require two electrophysiologists. Vermont Subscriber Answer: Unfortunately, Medicare does not recognize assistants at surgery for ablation procedures because an assistant is required less than 5 percent of the time for these procedures.

The reason for this is that there is usually no need for two electrophysiologists to do an ablation study. Typically, one electrophysiologist does this, so there's no real justification for billing twice. The fact that procedures are long does not necessarily indicate that they are complicated or require an assistant.