Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Keep using 83890-83914 for most payers. Don't expect 101 new CPT® molecular diagnostics codes to solve your specificity and payment problems -- CMS has announced that they won't price the codes for 2012. "As Medicare goes, so go most payers," says William Dettwyler, MT-AMT, president of Codus Medicus, a laboratory coding consulting firm in Salem, Ore. Most insurers evidently plan to continue accepting the "stacking codes" (83890-83914, Molecular diagnostics; ...) in the coming year for tests they cover. "It would be best to contact your major payers before billing these tests in 2012," he says. Read on to learn when and how you might start to use the new CPT® molecular pathology codes. Watch for CMS Staged Implementation CMS notes in the 2012 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) that the AMA Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) reviewed over 100 new CPT® 2012 codes describing molecular pathology services, but "they will [...]