Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Same site might make G code your payment key. If your pathologist procures both a bone marrow biopsy and a bone marrow aspiration, how -- or whether -- you'll get paid depends on two guidelines you can read about here. Because a bone marrow biopsy and a bone marrow aspiration can provide different diagnostic information for certain leukemia evaluations, taking both specimens from the same patient on the same day isn't unusual, according to R.M. Stainton Jr., MD, president of Doctor's Anatomic Pathology, an independent pathology laboratory in Jonesboro, Ark. 1. Use 59 for Different Sites Medicare and many other payers restrict how you bill for "sequenced" surgical procedures through the sameincision. That's why CMS has a Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edit that bundles the following codes: • 38220 (Bone marrow; aspiration only) • 38221 (... biopsy, needle or trocar). But the CCI Policy Manual states that you can report 38220 and [...]