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33210 and heart cath

Date: Jun 5, 2020

Question:

A patient was brought in for a diagnostic bilateral heart cath. On the H&P, the physician documents that the patient has been having syncopal episodes with rhythm disturbances and that the patient may need a pacemaker in in the future after the heart cath has been performed. During the heart cath procedure, the patient developed complete heart block, and an emergent temporary pacemaker was inserted. I saw a previous question posted, where you answered that a temporary pacemaker is considered part of any coronary arterial intervention. In this case, only a diagnostic cath was performed. Would it be appropriate to unbundle these procedures by adding a 59/XU modifier to 33210?

Question ID : 14041
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