Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: Our pain management physician began a patient on an intrathecal pump trial. He follows the patient for three days, then the patient comes back to the office and has the catheter removed. How should we code the three days of follow-up care?Virginia SubscriberAnswer: Before coding the follow-up days, you should confirm whether the physician used a tunneled or non-tunneled catheter for the trial.Tunneled option: It's fairly unusual for a physician to perform a tunneled trial catheter placement. If your physician does, however, submit 62350 (Implantation, revision or repositioning of tunneled intrathecal or epidural catheter, for long-term medication administration via an external pump or implantable reservoir/infusion pump; without laminectomy) for the trial. Code 62350 has a 10-day global period, so you would report 99024 (Postoperative follow-up visit, normally included in the surgical package, to indicate that an evaluation and management service was performed during a postoperative period for a reason[s] [...]