Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Agency denies reconsideration request.Your lab will continue to get the same pay for a dipstick or chemistry analyzer screening for multiple drug classes in a single patient encounter. That's according to the agency's preliminary payment determination, in which CMS denied industry commentators' requests at the annual laboratory public meeting to distinguish the services. Keep With Current PracticeWhen your lab performs a drug screen for a Medicare beneficiary, you should code the work as one unit of G0434 (Drug screen, other than chromatographic; any number of drug classes, by CLIA waived test or moderate complexity test, per patient encounter) when the lab uses any of the following methods:CLIA waived or non-instrumented moderate complexity test systems read by direct optical observation (such as dipsticks, cups, or cards)Moderate complexity instrumented test systems intended for repeated use, not read by direct optical observation (such as spectrophotometers, multi-channel chemistry analyzers, and fluorometers).Don't Expect Additional CodeSeveral [...]