Reader Question:
Special Stains
Published on Tue May 01, 2001
Question: Three kinds of stains are done for microorganisms on each of two blocks, such as gram, methenamine-silver, and PAS (periodic acid-Schiff reaction). Is the correct coding 88312 x 3 or 88312 x 6?
Texas Subscriber
Answer: Code 88312 is an add-on code for reporting specific special stains used in the evaluation of surgical pathology tissue specimens. The code describes stains that are Group I for microorganisms, each. The terminology each means that 88312 is reported once for each special stain used.
Code 88312 also includes the direction list separately in addition to code for surgical pathology examination. This means the unit of service for these special stains is the same as it is for the surgical pathology examination, which is the specimen. In your example, you state that you have two blocks, but you dont clarify the source of the blocks. Assuming that youre talking about two paraffin blocks from the same specimen, the correct answer to your question is to report three special stains. Therefore, if you stain a single specimen for microorganisms using gram, methenamine-silver and PAS, the appropriate coding would be 88312 x 3.
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