Case Code 33975 versus 33975/33404

[Donna C.]

Question on a recent practice exam I took in preparation for the
CPC exam:

Patient undergoes construction of apical aortic conduit with an insertion of a single ventricle ventricular assist device. The four options are: 33400 33975 33977 33975;33404
The correct answer is 33975.
My question is: Why is the 33404 not reported as the secondary code?

 

[Laureen]

Ok so first let's list out the codes

Now lets pop the 33975 and 33404 code into supercoder CCI Edits Checker to see if there are any bundling issues - and sure enough we find 33404 is part and parcel of 33975 so we should only report the 33975

 

[Donna C.]

Thank you so much. I could not find anything in the CPT book that shows that these are bundled. I greatly appreciate all of your help.