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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

CODING COACH:

Use These 3 Easy Tips for Headache-Related Nerve Blocks

Published on Mon Jan 12, 2009

Correct 64400 and 64405 coding helps ensure payment. If your practice is looking to add bilateral occipital or trigeminal nerve blocks as a headache-relief service to your patients, there are a few tips you can use to ensure proper coding and reimbursement. Take a look at what doctors and coders are doing to bring relief to patients and payment to the practice. Step 1: Know the Blocks' Purpose and Location For bilateral occipital or trigeminal nerve blocks, you'll be using codes 64405 (Injection, anesthetic agent; greater occipital nerve) or 64400 (Injection, anesthetic agent;trigeminal nerve, any division or branch). Occipital: The greater occipital nerve originates from the C2 spinal nerve and provides sensory innervation to the posterior area of the scalp extending to the top of the head. Physicians typically inject the greater occipital nerve (GON) just above the base of the skull for occipital or cervicogenic headaches or neck pain. [...]
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