Add Injection-Only Codes For Allergy Season
Question: We have a patient who receives their allergy medication from an online source to receive a better discount than we can offer, but they still prefer coming into our office for us to administer the injections monthly. How should I bill for this since we aren’t supplying the medication? Ohio Subscriber Answer: It is true that normally, when patients come in for injections, you need to code for both the injection procedure and the medication used; however, if the medication is supplied by an external source, like the patient bringing their own allergy immunotherapy agent as you described, you would use injection-only codes. These codes represent the administration of an extract prepared by another physician or source. The specific code you choose will be determined by the number of injections performed by the provider. If your physician provides only one injection at the visit, you’ll look to CPT® code 95115 (Professional services for allergen immunotherapy not including provision of allergenic extracts; single injection). If your physician provides more than one injection, you’ll use 95117 (Professional services for allergen immunotherapy not including provision of allergenic extracts; 2 or more injections) to report the allergy immunotherapy services that your physician performed. The code also includes the observation service (to check for allergic reactions) that your physician or the clinical staff most likely performs after the injection. Lindsey Bush, BA, MA, CPC, Production Editor, AAPC
