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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Override FNA Edits While Avoiding 3 Pitfalls

Published on Thu Apr 23, 2009

Moneymaker: These traits -greenlight- breaking out cytology or consult. Just because Medicare's Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) edits bundle lots of procedures with fine needle aspirations (FNAs), that shouldn't stop you from reporting all the services you-re entitled to bill. Here's when you can legitimately override these edits to bring in all the pay you deserve. Scoop: CPT provides two codes for FNA evaluation: - 88172 -- Cytopathology, evaluation of fine needle aspirate; immediate cytohistologic study to determine adequacy of specimen(s) - 88173 -- - interpretation and report. These codes represent separate and distinct services that a pathologist might perform for a single FNA specimen. -You should use the codes together when your pathologist performs both the immediate adequacy check and the interpretation,- says William Dettwyler, MTAMT, president of Codus Medicus, a coding consulting firm in Salem, Ore. 1. Intraoperative Doesn't Equal -Consult- Pathologists sometimes evaluate FNA specimens intraoperatively so the surgeon can [...]
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