Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: Our lab has a physician client who routinely orders total cholesterol and triglycerides. Should we report the lipid panel code for this work?

Ohio Subscriber

Answer: No, you should not report 80061 (Lipid panel) if the lab tests solely for total cholesterol and triglycerides. The lipid panel code requires three components: total cholesterol, triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

If you perform just two of those tests, you should code them separately, as follows:

• 82465 (Cholesterol, serum or whole blood, total)
• 84478 (Triglycerides).

Problem: If the physician orders this as a screening for cardiovascular disease, you might run into coverage issues, because most payers cover 80061 for this purpose.