Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
Chest. 2011 Sep;140(3):781-788. doi: 10.1378/chest.10-2068.
Inhaled aerosol therapies are the mainstay of treatment of obstructive lung diseases. Aerosol devices deliver drugs rapidly and directly into the airways, allowing high local drug concentrations while limiting systemic toxicity. While numerous clinical trials, literature reviews, and expert panel guidelines inform the choice of inhalational drugs, deciding which aerosol device (ie, metered-dose inhaler, nebulizer, or dry powder inhaler) best suits a given patient and clinical setting can seem arbitrary and confusing. Similar confusion regarding Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding for administration of aerosol therapies can lead to lost revenue from underbilling and wasted administrative effort handling denied claims. This article reviews the aerosol devices currently available, discusses their relative merits in various clinical settings, and summarizes appropriate CPT coding for aerosol therapy.
吸入式气溶胶疗法是治疗阻塞性肺部疾病的主要方法。气溶胶装置可迅速将药物直接输送到气道，在限制全身毒性的同时，实现高局部药物浓度。虽然许多临床试验、文献综述和专家小组指南为吸入性药物的选择提供了依据，但选择哪种气溶胶装置（即计量吸入器、雾化器或干粉吸入器）最适合特定患者和临床环境似乎是任意和令人困惑的。对于气溶胶疗法给药的现行操作编码（CPT），类似的混淆也可能导致计费不足导致收入损失，并浪费处理拒付索赔的管理工作。本文综述了目前可用的气溶胶装置，讨论了它们在各种临床环境中的相对优点，并总结了适合的 CPT 编码。
