You Be the Coder:
Solve DOS/Add-On Code Dilemma
Published on Fri Oct 15, 2010
Question: We had a liver biopsy Medicare case dated April 4, 2009, and the pathologist received a request on July 23 for an iron stain plus a PAS with and without diastase on the biopsy tissue. How should we code the special stains, and what should we use as the date of service if we're billing globally versus billing only the technical or professional component? Arkansas Subscriber Answer: Because the special stains your pathologist performed on the liver biopsy tissue are for "other" than microorganisms, the correct coding is three units of +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). In most cases, the DOS for the special stain technical component or global billing should be July 23. You can choose April 4 or July 23 as the DOS if you're only billing [...]
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