Catheters placed before radiation-source application

Read an original fictional chart, identify the supported facts, and explain your coding workflow.

Chart gym · Original fictional record

Service date: 2026-09-09 · Outpatient diagnostic or treatment service; stated component and Medicare relationship

Use your code books and write your reasoning before opening the walkthrough. This exercise contains no real patient information.

Treatment plan

Fictional adult has a documented plan for interstitial brachytherapy. During this encounter, a surgeon places the catheters intended for later source application. The radiation oncologist participates in planning the placement but does not apply the radiation source at this encounter.

Completed work

The record confirms catheter placement and preparation for later treatment. It explicitly states that no radiation source is loaded or applied by the radiation oncologist during this encounter. Future treatment remains planned rather than completed in the current record.

Role distinction

The claim under review is the radiation oncologist’s proposed source-application service. This case does not decide the surgeon’s catheter procedure or all other potentially appropriate services. Those require their own completed-work and entry review.

Coding issue

A draft reports the interstitial source-application procedure based on catheter readiness and the radiation oncologist’s presence. Compare that with the essential source-application requirement. Do not turn a planned later service into a completed present service.

Your coding worksheet

Identify what was completed at this encounter.
Identify whether the radiation oncologist applied the source.
Evaluate the proposed source-application service.
Separate this review from other clinicians’ possible services.

In your notebook, record the supported facts, your index route, the instructions you checked, and any missing detail that limits your answer.

Compare with the worked explanation

The catheters were placed, but source application was not performed at this encounter.
The radiation oncologist’s presence and planning do not supply the missing application.
NCCI F.6 requires actual source application for the described service.
Other completed work may require a different appropriate entry review; the case does not authorize reporting an unperformed application.

Reference sections: F.6

Practice the linked chart questions