lisamarhea
Contributor
- Messages
- 24
- Best answers
- 0
Having trouble coding the following procedure:
*********************************************
Lumbar puncture under fluoroscopic guidance and injection of nuclear
medicine tracer material for cisternogram.
The patient is a 61-year-old with increasing problems with gait,
ataxia, memory dysfunction with MRI scan showing enlargement of the
lateral ventricles out of proportion to the sulci, potentially
consistent with normal-pressure hydrocephalus. Today lumbar puncture
performed under fluoroscopic guidance using sterile technique. A
20-gauge spinal needle was used to obtain 24 mL of clear colorless
fluid after 1 mL of 1% lidocaine was instilled at the region of the
L4-5 interspace. At the end of the procedure, nuclear medicine
tracer was injected, and the patient will be scanned by nuclear
medicine today in the ensuing 72 hours to evaluate for whether signs
are suggestive of normal-pressure hydrocephalus on cisternogram.
************************************************** ***
My first question is....since I'm coding for the neurologist who performed the lumbar puncture/injection, and radiology does the CT scan portion of it, I am only billing out the lumbar puncture/injection, right?
Next... I'm finding conflicting info on whether the injection code should be 62311 or 62270. Can someone help me figure out which code would be correct in this case? We don't perform these procedures that often, so I'm a bit rusty when it comes to coding them.
Thanks so much
*********************************************
Lumbar puncture under fluoroscopic guidance and injection of nuclear
medicine tracer material for cisternogram.
The patient is a 61-year-old with increasing problems with gait,
ataxia, memory dysfunction with MRI scan showing enlargement of the
lateral ventricles out of proportion to the sulci, potentially
consistent with normal-pressure hydrocephalus. Today lumbar puncture
performed under fluoroscopic guidance using sterile technique. A
20-gauge spinal needle was used to obtain 24 mL of clear colorless
fluid after 1 mL of 1% lidocaine was instilled at the region of the
L4-5 interspace. At the end of the procedure, nuclear medicine
tracer was injected, and the patient will be scanned by nuclear
medicine today in the ensuing 72 hours to evaluate for whether signs
are suggestive of normal-pressure hydrocephalus on cisternogram.
************************************************** ***
My first question is....since I'm coding for the neurologist who performed the lumbar puncture/injection, and radiology does the CT scan portion of it, I am only billing out the lumbar puncture/injection, right?
Next... I'm finding conflicting info on whether the injection code should be 62311 or 62270. Can someone help me figure out which code would be correct in this case? We don't perform these procedures that often, so I'm a bit rusty when it comes to coding them.
Thanks so much
