Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Break Apart Immune Dysfunction Panel

Question: What codes should we use to report our lab’s work when the clinician requests an immune dysfunction panel consisting of B and T cell total counts and absolute CD8 and CD4 counts? This is not a “panel” as far as I can tell.

Indiana Subscriber

Answer: The correct way to code this work is to report the individual tests. You are correct that this not a “panel” code in CPT®, which has a section for codes that represent “organ or disease-oriented panels.”

Bill your lab’s work using the following codes:

  • 86355, B cells, total count
  • 86359, T cells; total count
  • 86360, T cells; absolute CD4 and CD8 count, including ratio.


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