Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert
Use Anatomy Smarts to Select Spinal Canal MRI
Question: Encounter notes indicate that the provider performed the following: “MRI cerv. spinal canal w/contrast …MRI thor. Spinal canal no contrast.” Should I report 72141 x 2 for this service? AAPC Forum Subscriber Answer: No, you should not follow that reporting path. MRI primer: The code set for spinal canal MRIs is deeper than you might expect. It has codes broken down by spinal area, then further broken down to indicate the use (or non-use) of contrast material. Here’s a look how the code set breaks down: Coding: On your claim, report: Best bet: Check your spinal canal notes against these code descriptors, and you should be able to arrive at the most accurate spinal canal MRI code each time.
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