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New Anesthesia CPT Codes for 2022
There were several changes to the code set for Anesthesia this year.
Deletions
First, we’ll start with the deletions. Codes 01935 and 01936 have been removed and are no longer valid for most payers.
This means that their submission will most likely result in a denial. These codes represent Anesthesia for Spinal Injection procedures (i.e., Chronic Pain) and are outlined below.
Deleted Anesthesia Codes
- 01935 Anesthesia for percutaneous image guided procedures on the spine and spinal cord; diagnostic (5 base)
- 01936 Anesthesia for percutaneous image guided procedures on the spine and spinal cord; therapeutic (5 base)
New Anesthesia Codes
In their place are 6 new (more granular) codes. Ideally, you should have begun submitting these to payers on January 1st.
However, if your billing and/or coding platform wasn’t updated in time, you can always run a report to identify such cases, so that you’re able to resubmit corrected claims.
As you’ll notice, anesthesia providers effectively lost one base unit per case on most of these procedures, due to revaluation.
New Anesthesia Codes
01937 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided injection, drainage or aspiration procedures on the spine or spinal cord; cervical or thoracic (4 base)
01938 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided injection, drainage or aspiration procedures on the spine or spinal cord; lumbar or sacral (4 base)
01939 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided destruction procedures by neurolytic agent on the spine or spinal cord; cervical or thoracic (4 base)
01940 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided destruction procedures by neurolytic agent on the spine or spinal cord; lumbar or sacral (4 base)
01941 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided neuromodulation or intravertebral procedures (eg, kyphoplasty, vertebroplasty) on the spine or spinal cord; cervical or thoracic (5 base)
01942 Anesthesia for percutaneous image-guided neuromodulation or intravertebral procedures (eg, kyphoplasty, vertebroplasty) on the spine or spinal cord; lumbar or sacral (5 base)
New Anesthesia Flat Fee Codes
There were also two new neurolytic procedure codes and one new TEE code added for reporting. These are “flat fee”, non-time-based procedures.
New Flat Fee Codes
64628 Thermal destruction of intraosseous basivertebral nerve, including all imaging guidance; first 2 vertebral bodies, lumbar or sacral
+ 64629 Thermal destruction of intraosseous basivertebral nerve, including all imaging guidance; each additional vertebral body, lumbar or sacral (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)
93319 3D echocardiographic imaging and postprocessing during transesophageal echocardiography, or during transthoracic echocardiography for congenital cardiac anomalies, for the assessment of cardiac structure(s) (eg, cardiac chambers and valves, left atrial appendage, interatrial septum, interventricular septum) and function, when performed (List separately in addition to code for echocardiographic imaging)
Medicare Modifiers
Lastly, Medicare introduced two new Evaluation and Management modifiers that could potentially affect Anesthesia billing.
Modifier “FS” is now required when a physician and employed non-physician practitioner combine to perform and document a facility visit.
Modifier “FT” is now required to be paid for critical care services on the same day as another billed service, under the same TIN. This seems to apply mainly to hospital-employed providers.
New Medicare Modifiers
FS Split or shared evaluation and management visit (append to claims for split/shared encounters in a facility setting)
FT Unrelated evaluation and management visit during a postoperative period, or on the same day as a procedure or another E/M visit (Report when an E/M visit is furnished within the global period but is unrelated, or when one or more additional E/M visits furnished on the same day are unrelated)
Hal has 30+ years of experience on both the payor and RCM side, with a focus in Anesthesia. He formerly worked as a senior claims approver at United Healthcare, as well as a compliance officer for multiple national anesthesia billing companies. His broad-based experience ensures that MSN clients have a resource for documentation and billing issues. His past speaking engagements include ASA, MGMA, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins.
