Please note this question was answered in 2021. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.
33289 and 33227 same day
Date: Jan 15, 2021
Question:
I had a patient who had a CRT-P downgraded to a single chamber pacemaker (His, RA leads capped, RV lead remains, old gen out/new gen in) and coded this to a 33227. The patient came in later that day for a CardioMEMS implant. This I coded to 33289. I am receiving NCCI edit that 33227 is component of 33289, not bypassable with mod. Should I attempt to send these two codes through and appeal, or do I really have to consider the pacemaker procedure a component of the CardioMEMS implant? This edit seems to make no sense to me, unless there is a clinical rationale why they should not be rendered on same DOS? What course of action would you take?
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