Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Question: Our gastroenterologist recently performed a spiral enteroscopy procedure. Are there separate CPT® codes for spiral enteroscopy and other enteroscopy procedures? Oklahoma Subscriber Answer: Enteroscopy is a procedure used by your gastroenterologist to view the small intestine. Another method used to visualize the small intestine is to use capsule endoscopy. However with capsule endoscopy, your gastroenterologist will only be able to visualize the small intestine and will not be able to perform any additional procedures, like taking a biopsy specimen. Your gastroenterologist might use different techniques for enteroscopy. The three different techniques used by gastroenterologists for enteroscopy include: Single balloon enteroscopy Double balloon enteroscopy Spiral enteroscopy Note that there are no separate CPT® codes for the different techniques of enteroscopy your gastroenterologist might use. Instead, while choosing the right code to report you will have to concentrate on the following guidelines: The approach used -- The most common approach is through [...]