Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: When we are billing out a transcranial Doppler (TCD), we use codes 93886, 93893, 93892, and 93890. Can we not bill these certain codes together?

Also, we used to bill out dynamic flow with 93875 and the code was deleted in 2012. Is there a new code that we can use?

New York Subscriber

Answer: Code 93892 (Transcranial Doppler study of the intracranial arteries; emboli detection without intravenous microbubble injection) is bundled into 93893 (Transcranial Doppler study of the intracranial arteries; emboli detection with intravenous microbubble injection). So you should not report 93982 and 93983 together. You can bill together for 93886 (Transcranial Doppler study of the intracranial arteries; complete study), 93893 and 93890 (Transcranial Doppler study of the intracranial arteries; vasoreactivity study).

The noninvasive physiologic studies code 93875 (Noninvasive physiologic studies of extracranial arteries, complete bilateral study [e.g., periorbital flow direction with arterial compression, ocular pneumoplethysmography, doppler ultrasound spectral analysis]) was deleted in 2012 because the service is no longer performed. A new “unlisted” code has been added as its replacement. Choose 93998 (Unlisted noninvasive vascular diagnostic study) to bill the dynamic flow.