You Be the Coder: Marcaine Anesthetic Before Injection Usually Means No Pay

Question: We've had increasing problems billing and being paid for the medications we use for trigger point and nerve block injections. We bill J1094 for Dexamethasone 4 mg, S0020 for Marcaine 0.5% and J2010 for Lidocaine 2%. We never get paid for the Marcaine and rarely get paid for the Dexamethasone. Are there other drugs we should be using? Or are we using the correct drugs with the wrong codes?80.09. What should I change when we resubmit?

North Carolina Subscriber

Answer: Physicians typically use Marcaine as an anesthetic for the procedure. If you look in your CPT® book under "CPT® [...]

- Published on 2011-12-01