Compliance Question of the Week – Cardiology

If a temporary pacemaker lead is inserted during a diagnostic heart cath, is it appropriate to charge for this lead placement if the patient does not leave the procedure room with it (the pacemaker lead)?

Is the coding of a diagnostic cardiac catheterization different based on the access into the body, for example: radial versus femoral artery?

Can a right heart catheterization (RHC) be billed on the same claim as a heart biopsy?

What code should be reported when only venous grafting is performed?

Is 93567 the appropriate code for the angiographic evaluation of an ascending aortic dissection without a cardiac catheterization?

A patient was brought to the cardiac cath lab, and only coronary bypass grafts were visualized. No native coronary arteries were injected or imaged, and no heart cath was performed. What is the appropriate CPT® procedure code to assign?

What code would I use for the second stent if the doctor’s dictation states “MI with culprit lesions in the LAD and RC”? If I can only assign code 92941 one time, what code do I use for the additional artery?

What is the best code to assign for a generator change from a dual-chamber to a single-chamber? Our cardiologist capped off a lead and then replaced a dual-chamber with a single-chamber pacemaker.

How is the following scenario coded? A patient has a SVG anastomosed to the LC obtuse marginal (OM). Next, this graft “jumps” to the RC posterolateral branch. Through the vein graft, the OM lesion is treated with angioplasty and bare metal stenting and a second lesion in the posterolateral branch of the RC is treated with angioplasty and bare metal stenting.

Last week’s answer to pediatric echocardiograms made me wonder what codes would be assigned for the congenital echocardiogram.

We are starting to perform pediatric echocardiograms, and I was wondering if the CPT® codes are the same for children as they are for adults. We use CPT code 93306 for adult echos; is that appropriate for pediatric exams as well?

Can we charge for the catheter placement for insertion of pacemakers?