What is component Coding in Interventional Radiology Coding?
Component coding can be described as coding each part of a larger procedure separately instead of a single procedure code for the whole procedure.
All Interventional radiology procedures can be divided into two components as given below:
1. Surgical Component (Surgical CPT codes)
Catheter placement
Intracatheter Interventions e.g. endovascular angioplasty, athrectomy, PTCA, etc.
2. Radiology Component (Radiology CPT codes)
Angiography S&I
Radiologic Interventional S&I
Why component coding?
Component coding helps in capturing each separate procedure during the operative session. Different physicians may perform different parts of a procedure and hence component coding helps in billing each component to the physician who performed it. For example during a stent placement catheterization and stent placement is done by the operating physician whereas all the radiological guidance required during the procedure is done by a radiologist. Hence the operating physician can bill with cath and stent codes and radiologist can bill with radiology codes.
What are the disadvantage of component coding?
Coding becomes complex with multiple codes. That is the reason AMA is now trying to develop codes to capture that will capture all the component of a large procedure into a single code. AMA CPT 2013 changes reflect these trend.
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