CT with CTA

kay.larsen@ah.org

Is there any way around the edit stating a CT cannot be billed with a CTA?  We're a stroke center and the physician is entering orders for both CT Brain without contrast and CTA Head/Neck.

Per our CT Dept, both are needed for different purposes and each has a separate report:  "CT Brain wo and CT Angio Head/neck orders is the current standard of practice for any related stroke symptoms. CT brain is to analyze if the patient has a intracranial bleed and the CTA head/neck is to evaluate vascular abnormalities such as aneurysm or clots. If we eliminate the CT Brain and just do the CTA head neck than the physician will not be able to r/o bleed because the contrast has the same appearance as blood in CT image. It’s important that we perform both studies to appropriately diagnose and treat the patient. There should be enough data in physician progress notes to justify these studies."

Thanks!

ronaldhirsch

It is a different purpose but is different imaging? In other words, the CTA involves a CT brain to obtain the background images that are then compared to the contrast portion so you need the CT to properly interpret a CTA. Hence you cannot bill for both
https://www.hcpro.com/HIM-285091-859/QA-Billing-CT-and-CTA.html