Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: If the cardiologist performs inpatient TEE, do I report that with 93312, 93313, or 93314?

Texas Subscriber

Answer: Which code you should report depends on precisely what your cardiologist performed:

• Place probe, acquire images, AND interpret/report: 93312, Echocardiography, transesophageal, real-time with image documentation (2D) (with or without M-mode recording); including probe placement, image acquisition, interpretation and report
• Place probe: 93313, ... placement of transesophageal probe only
• Acquire images, interpret/report: 93314, ... image acquisition, interpretation and report only.

Watch for: There are two other factors to keep in mind for inpatient services:

PC/TC: First, you need to know if the code you report has both a professional component and a technical component. If so and you're reporting the cardiologist's services in the inpatient setting, you should append modifier 26 (Professional component).

Both codes 93312 and 93314 accept modifier 26. But it would not be appropriate to use modifier 26 on 93313, according to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule PC/TC indicator.

POS: Reporting the appropriate place of service (POS) is important both for accuracy and to be sure you don't trigger edits that payers may have limiting reporting of these TEE codes to certain settings. For an inpatient service, be sure to enter POS 21.