Anesthesia Question Important in This Manipulation Scenario
Question: When the surgeon performs spinal manipulation for a patient, what CPT® code is most appropriate to report? RCI Subscriber Answer: It depends on whether the surgeon used anesthesia during the manipulation. If the provider used anesthesia, report 22505 (Manipulation of spine requiring anesthesia, any region). If, however, there is no indication of anesthesia, opt for 97140 (Manual therapy techniques (eg, mobilization/ manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage, manual traction), 1 or more regions, each 15 minutes). Be careful you don’t choose the wrong code, or you’ll be miscoding the encounter — and potentially losing money. The 22205 code has 4.58 nonfacility relative value units (RVUs), while 97140 has 0.84. Also, you have to watch the clock to code 97140 correctly. Report 1 unit of 97140 for every 15 minutes of spinal manipulation. Chris Boucher, MS, CPC, Senior Development Editor, AAPC
