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Anesthesia charges for lumbar facet injections
Looking at a claim where the provider billed:
00630 – with modifiers AA and QS (Anesthesia for procedures in lumbar region; not otherwise specified) (Anesthesia services performed personally by anesthesiologist / Monitored anesthesiology care services (can be billed by a qualified nonphysician anesthetist or a physician))
…when the procedure was lumbar facet injections and the record states the patient received conscious sedation.
Commonly with these injections I see:
99144 (Moderate sedation services (other than those services described by codes 00100-01999) billed.
I have not seen 00630 billed with any types of lumbar injections.
Is it appropriate to bill 00630 for the conscious sedation?
Is it inappropriate to bill 99144 for conscious sedation for lumbar injections?
re: ANESTHESIA CHARGES FOR LUMBAR FACET INJECTIONS
Unless the record shows there was a problem with administering conscious sedation (99144) or, some issue with the patient's condition I don't think it is appropriate to bill conscious sedation with 00630-QS
re: ANESTHESIA CHARGES FOR LUMBAR FACET INJECTIONS
Some kind of procedure or surgery was done at the lumbar region by using the conscious sedation anesthesia providing technique, so yes code 00630 can be billed. I don't bill the code 00630 with QS modifier, unless or until it's required. Even for Medicare too.