Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Question: How can we report time the neurologist spends assessing for aphasia (784.3)?

Washington Subscriber


Answer: For aphasia assessment, you should look to 96105 (Assessment of aphasia [includes assessment of expressive and receptive speech and language function, language comprehension, speech production ability, reading, spelling, writing, e.g., by Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination] with interpretation and report, per hour).
 
Aphasia describes a condition in which the patient loses or suffers serious damage to his ability to use or comprehend words as a result of brain damage. The examination described by 96105 provides insight into an aphasic patient's functioning and may help a neurologist to determine if a patient has lost a repetitive function as opposed to a naming function.
 
Generally, the aphasia exam takes five to 25 minutes to administer and is based on a 60-item picture-naming test. Along with "The Assessment of Aphasia and Related Disorders, Second Edition" - which serves as a test manual - the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination as described by 96105 provides 43 scores related to aphasic syndromes, evaluating fluency, reading and auditory comprehension, naming, repetition, automatic sequences, writing, music, and spatial abilities as well as other functions.