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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Confirm FNA Unit of Service for Medicare

Published on Fri Jan 13, 2012

Lesion and evaluation episode constrain coding.If you understand how to report your pathologists' fine needle aspiration (FNA) adequacy check and cytologic diagnosis based on CPT® instruction, you won't have a problem with CMS's addition to the NCCI Policy Manual regarding FNA. That's because the policy manual update for the following codes comports directly with CPT® guidance: 88172 -- Cytopathology, evaluation of FNA; immediate cytohistologic study to determine adequacy for diagnosis, first evaluation episode, each site 88177 -- ... each separate additional evaluation episode, same site (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)."The manual confirms that the approved unit of service for FNA immediate study code 88172 is the initial evaluation episode per each different lesion (anatomic site)," says Dennis Padget, MBA, CPA, FHFMA, president of DLPadget Enterprises Inc. and publisher of the Pathology Service Coding Handbook, in The Villages, Fla.. "If additional episodes are necessary for a lesion, each additional [...]
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