Pediatric Coding Alert

Question: What is the correct code for intubation?

Maryland Subscriber

Answer: The code depends on what you do and why you do it. Intubation is passing a small plastic breathing tube across the vocal cords through the mouth and into the trachea. Simply visualizing the larynx does not qualify as intubation. If you place a tube in the trachea indirectly to provide breathing support in an emergency , code 31500 (intubation, endotracheal, emergency procedure). This code is exempt from modifier -51 (multiple procedures); you can bill it with other procedures without fee reduction. If you perform intubation without aspiration, code 31520 (laryngoscopy, direct, with or without tracheoscopy; diagnostic, newborn). If meconium is aspirated from the larynx and trachea, code 31515 ( for aspiration).

  Reader Questions and You Be the Coder answered by Richard A. Molteni, MD, FAAP, vice president and medical director, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle; Richard H. Tuck, MD, FAAP, founding chairman, AAP coding and reimbursement committee, practicing pediatrician, Zanesville, Ohio; and  Thomas A. Kent, CPC, CMM, president, Kent Medical Management, Dunkirk, Md.