Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: We occasionally perform a water load test for patients with water retention, and I learned that CPT 2004 deleted the code that we use to report the service (89365). It seems that CPT "moved" this to new code 89235, which has the same definition. Should we use the new code just as we used the old code for the water load test? Why did CPT change the code number if the procedure is the same?

Indiana Subscriber

Answer: Yes, you should report code 89235 (Water load test) just as you would have reported 89365 in past years for the same test.
 
The code "moved" along with four other codes because CPT 2004 created a new section for "Reproductive Medicine Procedures." Before the change, CPT listed reproductive codes such as 89253 (Assisted embryo hatching, microtechniques [any method]) in the "Other Procedures" section, where you could also find other codes such as water load test. The numbers for existing reproductive technique codes did not change, and the new "Reproductive Medicine" heading covers those existing codes, along with 15 new reproductive technique codes.
 
Because five nonreproductive procedure codes were in a numerical sequence that would have placed them under the reproductive heading, CPT 2004 deleted those codes and created new code numbers in a sequence under the "Other Procedures" section. CPT 2004 directs coders from the old code numbers to the new code numbers as follows: