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Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

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Watch Interpretation Unit of Service

Published on Tue Sep 01, 2009

Question: Our lab performs a B-cell gene rearrangement test by PCR with a series of primers specific for immunoglobulin heavy chain, kappa light chain, and lambda light chain genes. Should the pathologist bill 83912 or 83912 x 3 for the interpretation? South Carolina Subscriber Answer: The pathologist should bill one unit of 83912 (Molecular diagnostics; interpretation and report). Code 83912 is part of the molecular diagnostics family (83890-83913) used for analysis of nucleic acids, usually to diagnose genetic disorders. Each of these codes describes a separate technique, such as nucleic acid extraction (83890 or 83891), separation by gel electrophoresis (83894), or gene amplification, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (83898). You code a molecular diagnostics test or panel by listing the codes for each of the steps. You might need to report multiple units of some steps in the panel. In your example, you amplify three genes by PCR, so [...]
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