Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Let our experts' scenarios show the way for macrodissection billing. Wondering when your pathologists' tissue prep services warrant reporting 88387-+88388 (Macroscopic examination, dissection, and preparation of tissue for non-microscopic analytical studies [e.g., nucleic acid-based molecular studies]...)? You read the primer for these codes in Pathology/Lab Coding Alert's Vol. 11 No. 4 "Garner Molecular Studies Preparation Pay -- Here's How." Now you can study the following scenarios to get an idea of services that would merit 88387 or +88388 pay. Tackle This Lymph Node Scenario "The most common specimen we might process using methods described by 88387-+88388 is a lymph node," says Sophia Hauxwell, MT-ASCP, laboratory scientist in the University of Nebraska Medical Center Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Omaha. That's also the specimen that CPT lists as an example for these codes. Sample case: During a quadrantectomy procedure, the surgeon requests a pathology consultation on sentinel lymph node(s) to determine the potential [...]