Ask Dr. Z

Ask Dr. Z Knowledge Base houses over 7,500 coding questions and answers dating back to 2013.

Ask Dr. Z Disclaimer

Please note this question was answered in 2014. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.

CVC Evaluation and Repositioning

Date: Oct 24, 2014

Question:

Can codes 36598 and 36597 be charged together? Here are the highlights of the report: "Spot image of tunneled CVC shows tip flipped superiorly into left brachial cephalic vein. Saline injections attempted to move catheter were unsuccessful. Access was gained into right common femoral, and catheter was advanced into SVC. Catheter used to hook the CVC catheter tubing and reposition the tip into the SVC. Contrast injection into the CVC catheter demonstrates rapid flow through CVC with tip in SVC." My thought was to report codes 36598 and 36010-59, but now I'm questioning if we should also add code 36597, as I don't see any edits for coding the repositioning and the evaluation together.

Question ID : 6134
Sign up for a membership to view the answer to this question.

Need to ask Dr.Z?

Don't see the answer you're looking for in the knowledge base? No problem. You can ask Dr. Z directly!
Ask Dr. Z a question now!