Please note this question was answered in 2020. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.
Palma Procedure
Date: Oct 5, 2020
Question:
Patient underwent a right common VEIN to left common VEIN bypass with PTFE and a fistula creation with 6 mm graft right common femoral artery to the fem-fem vein bypass graft. Since this is a vein to vein bypass, is this an unlisted procedure (37799), as I was under the assumption that the bypass codes (35501-35671) are only used for artery bypasses. It's comparable to 35661. The fistula creation I was thinking 35686, but it is an add-on code, and neither 35661 or 37799 is an allowed primary code. What would be your advice on which codes to use?
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