Ob-Gyn Coding Alert

Question: My ob-gyns looked at the arterial inflow and venous outflow (color flow) but did not take any measurements. Does that qualify for the limited Doppler (93976)?

Delaware Subscriber

 

Answer: Yes, you should use 93976 (Duplex scan of arterial inflow and venous outflow of abdominal, pelvic, scrotal contents and/or retroperitoneal organs; limited study) when the documentation describes imaging only a portion of the code descriptor's components. But be sure that you have met the CPT documentation requirements first. In other words, what do you mean by -not taking any measurements-?

           
Keep in mind: You can bill for this service only if your physician provides a written interpretation of the results and also takes hard-copy images. The reason is that CPT guidelines state: The physician must provide -supervision of the studies and interpretation of study results with copies for patient records of hard-copy output with analysis of all data, including bidirectional vascular flow or imaging when provided. The use of a simple hand-held or other Doppler device that does not produce hard- copy output, or that produces a record that does not permit analysis of bidirectional vascular flow, is considered to be part of the physical examination of the vascular system and is not separately reported.-