Pulmonology Coding Alert

Misunderstanding physician's notes can cost your practice $38 per procedure.Don't shortchange your practice when reporting thoracentesis by picking the wrong code. When your pulmonologist performs this procedure you either use 32421 or32422 to report your claims. But it's not as easy as 1-2-3. Take this quiz and compare your answers with the solutions provided in a related article.Test yourself with these two scenariosScenario 1: A patient comes to the office complaining of shortness of breath. The pulmonologist evaluates the patient obtaining important historical information. She then performs an exam, including percussion and auscultation of the lungs.She percusses the patient's chest, noting dullness. The breath sounds are greatly diminished over the area where the chest dullness was found. After a chest x-ray, she confirms the presence of a pleural effusion.Based on the x-ray results, the pulmonologist decides to sample the patient's pleural fluid using a needle attached to a syringe. He [...]