Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Focus on site to get the pay you deserve. When your pathologist performs a touch prep, you better know two wheres. Thats because both where in the building and where on the tissue can impact your code selection -- and your pathologists pay. Understand the process: The pathologist performs a touch or squash prep by pressing a slide onto a surgical pathology specimen to make an imprint of cells for examination. Where? Use 88333-88334 for the OR If a surgeon asks your pathologist to come to the operating room to consult on a case during the patients procedure, thats a pathology consultation during surgery. Sometimes the pathologist will perform one or more touch preps, examine the slides, and report the findings to the surgeon while the patient is still on the table. You should report touch prep(s) during surgery with one or more of the following codes: " 88333 -- Pathology consultation [...]