General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: Our surgeon inserted a non-tunneled catheter for a three-year-old patient. How should we code the service?

Codify Subscriber

Answer: You don’t provide enough information for a definitive answer. For instance, is the tunneled catheter peripherally or centrally inserted? The answer to that question would lead to one of the following codes:

• 36555 — Insertion of non-tunneled centrally inserted central venous catheter; younger than 5 years of age
• 36568 — Insertion of peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC), without subcutaneous port or pump; younger than 5 years of age

Tip: You need to know the following information to select the proper code for venous access procedures:

• What is the patient age (less than 5 years, or 5 years or older?) 
• Is the catheter tunneled or not? 
• Is the line centrally placed or peripherally placed?
• Is there a port or pump?

With the answer to those questions, you should always be able to choose the proper code in the range 36555-36571.