Wiki Anesthetic inj. into cervical plexus

[aflower1325]

I am an adjunct instructor for billing and coding. One question the students were posed with on a quiz I was assigned to give them is as follows:

A 35 year old man presents to the urgent care center with severe neck pain. The physician examines the patient and makes the diagnosis of cervical nerve impingement and injects an anesthetic agent into the cervical plexus using three injections. Select the procedure code(s).

a. 64000 x3
b. 69421-50
c. 64413
d. 64413 x3

The correct answer is supposedly C. 64413 which is Injection, anesthetic agent, trigeminal nerve, any division or branch, cervical plexus.

They want to know why it is not d. which is the same as c. except that it is x3. I can not find a way to argue for either direction. It does not say single injection, or injection(s) or anything of the sort that specifies if it is single or multiple that is included in the one code. At least not that I can find. It is possible that it is the end of their year and I am just brain dead and missing something.

Any help with this is appreciated!

 

[maggie mccabe]

The cervical Plexus = C1-C4. The nomenclature does not say each.

 

[cczech]

After finding the following description, it looks like it is supposed to be a single injection if done correctly. Hope this helps.

Cervical plexus: a network of nerves made up of the C1, C2, C3, and C4 spinal nerves; innervates the skin and muscles of the head, neck, and shoulders. A nerve block can be performed with a single injection at the C4 transverse process with the local anesthetic spreading to the C2 and C3 nerves