Modifiers

CPT modifiers (also referred to as Level I modifiers) are used to supplement the information or adjust care descriptions to provide extra details concerning a procedure or service provided by a physician. Code modifiers help further describe a procedure code without changing its definition.
PHYSICAL STATUS MODIFIER (FOR ANESTHESIA)

Anesthesia procedures have their own special set of modifiers, which are simple and correspond to the condition of the patient as the anesthesia is administered. These codes are:

P1 – a normal, healthy patient
P2 – a patient with mild systemic disease
P3 – a patient with severe systemic disease
P4 – a patient with severe systemic disease that is a constant threat to life
P5 – a moribund patient who is not expected to survive without the operation
P6 – a declared brain-dead patient whose organs are being removed for donor purposes
As we said, these are relatively straightforward, but let’s look at an example that will also use some of the CPT modifiers we learned just a minute ago.

Let’s return to that angioplasty example. The patient needs to be anesthetized before undergoing this procedure, so we turn to the Anesthesia section of the CPT codebook and find the code 00216 for “vascular procedures.” Now, kidney problems notwithstanding, our patient is in good health, so we’d add the –P1 modifier to this anesthesia code, and end up with 00216-P1.