Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: Will you confirm whether printed US images must be present in the medical record to meet all payers’ guidelines/policies when submitting US guidance claims?

Hawaii Subscriber

Answer: Individual payers may create their own policies for the claims submitted to them, but the CPT® wording is that "Ultrasound guidance procedures also require permanently recorded images of the site to be localized, as well as a documented description of the localization process, either separately or within the report of the procedure for which the guidance is utilized."

The key phrase is that the images must be "permanently recorded." A printed image in the medical record would meet this requirement, but retrievable images in the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) would meet the requirement, as well.