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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Reader Question:

88342, 88360, 88361 Need Clarification

Published on Wed Jun 08, 2011

Question: What CPT® codes should we report for breast specimen tests listed with the following results? tissue ER: positive (100% of the cells strongly positive) tissue PR: positive (rare focal weak positivity identified, greater than 20% of the cells) HER-2/neu overexpression: negative (0+/3+).Tennessee SubscriberAnswer: You don't provide enough information to code with certainty. CPT® provides the following three codes that might describe immunohistochemistry (IHC) tests for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER-2/neu for breast specimens:88342 -- Immunohistochemistry [including tissue immunoperoxidase], each antibody88360 -- Morphometric analysis, tumor immunohistochemistry (e.g., Her-2/neu, estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor), quantitative or semiquantitative, each antibody; manual88361 -- ... using computer-assisted technology.Because you performed three antibody tests -- ER, PR, and HER-2/neu -- you'll report three distinct codes for the service. But to choose the correct code for each test, you need to know whether the test is qualitative or quantitative/semiquantitative, and whether the lab platform is manual or automated.Best guess: Because [...]
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