Please note this question was answered in 2022. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.
Donor Heart Repair with Transplantation, 33944 &33945
Question:
Would the following documentation support billing 33641 as part of back bench work, if done off bypass?
"We examined the new heart on the backtable, and we prepared the donor heart. The left atrium was trimmed. The great vessels were separated, and the aorta and pulmonary artery were trimmed. The inter-atrial septum was examined, and there was a patent foramen ovale. We closed the patent foramen ovale with prolene sutures."
Would the donor heart need to be placed into the recipient and CPB initiated in order to separately report repairs? There is a CPT parenthetical for 33944: "(For repair or resection procedures on the donor heart, see 33300, 33310, 33320, 33390, 33463, 33464, 33510, 33641, 35216, 35276, 35685)."
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