Radiology Coding: CPT 2010 Breathes New Life Into Your Respiratory Coding
Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Editor in Hot Coding Topics
Master 32561’s guidelines to prevent a major units gaffe.
Flip through the Surgery/Respiratory System section of your CPT 2010 manual, and you’ll see the coding committee has been hard at work adding to and revising your options. Discover the added cath removal code, the all new fibrinolytic agent instillation code, and the reshaped bronchoscopy descriptors, so you can rest assured your coding will be ship-shape in 2010.
1. End Your Hunt for 32550’s Removal Code Match
Until now, CPT has offered insertion code 32550 (Insertion of indwelling tunneled pleural catheter with cuff), but you’ve been left in the lurch for removal, using either an E/M or unlisted code.
CPT 2010 adds new code 32552 (Removal of indwelling tunneled pleural catheter with cuff) to solve this problem, said Stephen Hoffman, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus and AMA CPT Advisory Committee American Thoracic Society representative, at AMA’s 2010 annual CPT and RBRVS symposium.
Tube trivia: “Initially, when code 32550 was created, an indwelling tunneled pleural catheter with cuff was inserted for drainage and management of malignant pleural effusions at the end of a patient’s life; therefore, the removal of the catheter was not included in the valuation of 32550,” according to The ACR’s Radiology Coding Source (Sept./Oct. 2009).
Code 32552 now covers the incisions and “subcutaneous dissection of the indwelling cuff” needed to remove the catheter, ACR explains.
Next, watch out for the coding pitfall …
2. Don’t Fall for Multiple 32561 Unit Temptation
CPT 2010 also adds two new codes to describe instilling a fibrinolytic agent. Note that CPT divides them based on initial and subsequent day:
• 32561 – Instillation(s), via chest tube/catheter, agent for fibrinolysis (e.g., fibrinolytic agent for break up of multiloculated effusion); initial day
• 32562 – … subsequent...
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