General Question for the Week of November 18, 2024

Question:

A patient is receiving an infusion treatment in which three different medications are administered simultaneously through a multi-lumen IV line. According to the AMA CPT® guidelines, would this scenario be coded as a concurrent infusion (CPT® 96368), and what key factors should be documented to support this code? Additionally, how would coding differ if the medications were mixed in a single bag instead of administered through separate IV piggy-backs?

Answer:

Concurrent infusion (96368) represents the simultaneous administration of a different substance or substances through the same access site as another drug. Several AMA CPT Assistant articles address the distinction between sequential and concurrent administration. To ensure accurate code selection, it is essential to review the published material and determine the code selection for individual scenarios when multiple drugs are administered simultaneously. When multiple drugs are mixed in a single bag to create a single infusate, this would be defined as either an initial or sequential infusion; however, when three separate IV piggy-backs are infusing simultaneously through a multi-lumen line, this would be defined as concurrent administration.

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