Health Information Management

Tip: Coding drug-eluting stents for coronary interventions

APCs Insider, August 20, 2010

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Stents used for percutaneous coronary interventions can be either bare-metal or drug-eluting. Bare-metal stents can lead to restenosis, a repeat narrowing of the vessel, approximately 30% of the time. Although these stents don’t cause another disease, they result in a controlled injury similar to a scar. Drug-eluting stents are coated with drugs to interfere with restenosis. 

When reporting placement of a drug-eluting stent in the hospital setting, use the following HCPCS Level II codes:

  • G0290—transcatheter placement of a drug-eluting intracoronary stent(s), percutaneous, with or without other therapeutic intervention, any method; single vessel
  • G0291—transcatheter placement of a drug-eluting intracoronary stent(s), percutaneous, with or without other therapeutic intervention, any method; each additional vessel

Stent placement includes angiography that is performed in the same vessel. If the physician performs angioplasty in a different vessel, ensure sure the documentation reflects this before you report it.

Use site-specific modifiers -LC (left circumflex), -LD (left anterior descending), and -RC (right coronary) to show which artery the physician was in while performing the procedure.

This tip is adapted from “Get to the heart of percutaneous coronary procedures” in the August issue of Briefings on APCs.



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