Welcome to the Chart Talk Blog — a place for conversations about anesthesia coding, auditing, documentation, compliance, anatomy, and the real-world challenges coding professionals encounter every day. Explore recent articles, educational series, coding discussions, and practical insights designed to help us continue learning together.
Latest from Chart Talk
-
Would You Code It? Case # 2
Tuesday — Case #2: Is This Block Separately Billable? Chart Talk ~ Anesthesia Coding Conversations Welcome to Day 2 of “Would You Code It?” Today we are looking at one of the most common questions in anesthesia coding: a peripheral nerve block is clearly documented—but does that automatically make it separately reportable? THE CASE A…
-
Would You Code It ? Case #1
Monday — Case #1: The Anesthesia Time Doesn’t Make Sense Welcome to Day 1 of “Would You Code It?” We’re starting the week with something every anesthesia coder works with anesthesia time. We see a start time and a stop time. We calculate the minutes. Done. Right? Not always. Sometimes the numbers calculate perfectly—but the record still doesn’t make sense.…
-
Would You Code It?
Anesthesia Coding Cases That Make You Stop & Think If you have coded anesthesia for any length of time, you already know that the cases that look simple at first glance are sometimes the ones that make you stop and think. The code may seem obvious—until you read a little further. The anesthesia time is…
-
What Are You Taking Into This Week?
A Weekly Reflection for the Anesthesia Coding Community A new week of anesthesia coding is here, and before the emails start coming in, the work queue fills up, and that first complicated anesthesia record lands in front of us, it is worth asking one simple question: What are you taking into this week? We spend…
-
Know the Anatomy: Skull & Cranial Anatomy
Series I — Head, Face & Neck | #001 The Anatomy Behind the Procedure Matters in Anesthesia Coding When an anesthesia coder sees terms such as craniotomy, craniectomy, skull base, intracranial, extracranial, burr hole, posterior fossa, or cranial vault, those words are doing more than describing a surgical procedure. They are giving us an anatomical…
-
🚩 Anesthesia Audit Red Flag #5
When the Record Doesn’t Agree with Itself You are almost finished auditing the case, the anesthesia record looks good. The procedure is documented, the anesthesia time is present, the modifiers appear appropriate, everything seems to be falling into place. Then you open another part of the medical record, and suddenly… the story changes. The anesthesia record…
-
Do You Ever Feel Like Giving Up?
Do you ever have one of those moments when you wonder if it would just be easier to give up? Maybe you have been working on a project that isn’t coming together the way you imagined. Maybe you gave a presentation and walked away thinking about everything you wish you had done differently. Maybe you…
-
🚩 Anesthesia Audit Red Flag #4
Postoperative Pain Block or Primary Anesthetic? You open the anesthesia record and there it is. A beautifully documented nerve block. The nerve is identified, laterality is documented, ultrasound guidance is documented, the local anesthetic, concentration, and volume are recorded, the procedure note looks great, so, what’s the CPT code? Not so fast. Before asking “What code describes…
-
🚩 Anesthesia Audit Red Flag #3
The Procedure Is Listed — But Where Is the Documentation? You are reviewing an anesthesia claim. In addition to the anesthesia service, you see another CPT code. Maybe it’s an arterial line, or a central venous catheter, a separately reported TEE service, or maybe it’s ultrasound guidance associated with another procedure. At first glance, the…
-
When Your Gut Tells You Something Is Wrong:What Do You Do?
There are moments in medical coding when the hardest question is not: “What code should I use”, but “What do I do when I am being told to do something that I believe is wrong?” Medical coding has guidelines for a reason. We have official coding guidelines, payer policies, CMS regulations, NCCI edits, CPT guidance, documentation…
