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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

READER QUESTIONS:

Clarify Special Stain Units

Published on Thu Apr 23, 2009

Question: When our pathologist performs three PAS stains, three Masson stains, and one Jones stain on a kidney biopsy specimen, how should we report the service -- 88313 x 3 or 88313 x 7? Nebraska Subscriber Answer: You are correct in your code selection for each of these stains: +88313 (Special stains [List separately in addition to code for primary service]; Group II, all other [e.g., iron, trichrome], except immunocytochemistry and immunoperoxidase stains, each). The +88313 descriptor indicates that you should code once per stain. The definition specifies -each.- But the real question is this: Each individual stain on what -- on a single slide, or on all the slides from a single block, or on all the slides from a single specimen? The instructions direct you to -list separately in addition to the code for primary service.- That means you should report each separate stain you perform on each -primary service.- [...]
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