Avoid misusing surgical terms for stents and catheters or you might find that your patient reports don’t match up with the latest CPT terminology.
While practices may often use “catheter” as a term to refer universally to an internal or external procedure, CPT language follows a more nuanced set of rules, according to Katharine Krol, M.D., CPT editorial panel member, speaking at the AMA’s 2015 CPT® and RBRVS Annual Symposium in Chicago.
It boils down to internal and external access, notes Krol. Basically, stents refer to an internal device. “They are totally internal, not externally accessible,” she explains.
When your situation involves a device that you can access externally, that’s when you’re dealing with a catheter, says Krol, in reference to 2016 CPT updates that seek to better define the terms involved with these common procedures.
Specifically, the CPT code set refers to an internal or external drainage device as a “drainage catheter.”
Example: New CPT code 47533 (Placement of biliary drainage catheter, percutaneous, including diagnostic cholangiography when performed, imaging guidance [e.g., ultrasound and/or fluoroscopy], and all associated radiological supervision and interpretation; external) is an example of a catheter.
Conversely, new code 47538 (Placement of stent[s] into a bile duct, percutaneous, including diagnostic cholangiography, imaging guidance [e.g., fluoroscopy and/or ultrasound], balloon dilation, catheter exchange[s] and catheter removal[s] when performed, and all associated radiological supervision and interpretation, each stent; existing access) is an example of a stent.