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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Not Every Panel is a CPT® Panel

Published on Thu May 05, 2011

Question: A physician ordered a urine "kidney stone risk panel" for a patient with serial kidney stones. I don't see the panel listed in CPT® -- how should we code the panel?Tennessee SubscriberAnswer: CPT® does not provide a code for a "kidney stone risk panel," so you should individually report the tests that the lab performs.For instance: The lab might test the patient's urine for citric acid, uric acid, oxalic acid, and a 24-hour calcium test to determine what components might be involved in repeated stone formation. If these are the tests in your panel, report the following codes:82340 -- Calcium; urine quantitative, timed specimen82507 -- Citrate83945 -- Oxalate84560 -- Uric acid; other source.Understand panel coding: CPT® provides codes for "organ or disease-oriented panels" in the range 80047 (Basic metabolic panel [calcium ionized]) to 80076 (Hepatic function panel). These panels involve a number of chemistry tests -- each with its own code -- that CPT® groups together [...]
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