Ask Dr. Z

I have an interesting case, and I'm wondering if you may have some insight. The patient was to undergo brachiocephalic arteriovenous fistula creation for dialysis access and required a brachial endarterectomy with a bovine patch angioplasty, to which the cephalic vein was then attached to create the fistula. I know in lower extremity bypass procedures the inflow/outflow would be inclusive, but this is not technically a bypass procedure. It has no NCCI edit per Craneware. However, since code 36821 has a "separate procedure" designation, I hesitate to bill these together, as they are in the same anatomic site at same session. If only one code is determined to be billable, could I bill the endarterectomy since this is more extensive (higher RVUs) than the fistula creation (36821), even though the intent of the operative session was for creation of the fistula?