Question:
For code 92941 is there a way of determining if the patient has subtotal occlusion or are we strictly left to rely on the physician to document that specific phrase?
Answer:
The physician should document how much occlusion there is, and for 92941, that it is the culprit lesion for the myocardial infarct. If he doesn’t say “total occlusion” or 100% occlusion, then I would consider it subtotal. Documentation of the amount of occlusion really only matters for the chronic total occlusion codes (92943/92944), and he should be documenting “chronic total occlusion” in those cases.