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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Bill for Touch Preps With Sentinel Node

Published on Tue Jul 01, 2003

Question: When performing a sentinel lymph node biopsy, our pathologists often perform touch preps and report the findings to the surgeon intraoperatively. Should we bill for the touch preps and a consultation in addition to the sentinel lymph node biopsy? Tennessee Subscriber Answer: You should report the touch prep as 88161 (Cytopathology, smears, any other source; preparation, screening and interpretation) in addition to the sentinel lymph node biopsy (88307, Level V Surgical pathology, gross and microscopic examination, sentinel lymph node). Even if the pathologist performs multiple touch prep smears on the sentinel node, report only one unit of 88161 for the service. If the surgeon requests the pathologist's intraoperative touch prep interpretation, and the pathologist reports the findings during surgery, also report 88329 (Pathology consultation during surgery). If the pathologist makes the touch prep but waits to review it and report the findings along with the permanent section examination, do not report 88329 in addition to 88161 and 88307.  
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