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Pulmonology Coding Alert

Imaging Study:

78580, 78586-78594: Soak Up The Language of VQ Study

Published on Mon Jul 11, 2011

Look for clues in the method used: injection or inhalation.When your pulmonologist orders a ventilation/perfusion scan (or VQ scan) to help rule out a suspected pulmonary embolism, you might encounter terms such as "MAA" and "DTPA" in the physician's notes, and question why you can't find them in the code's descriptors. This can be confusing, and can cause coding inconsistency -- putting your practice at compliance or financial risk.In order to code with consistency, you will need to confirm if the physician provided a perfusion or ventilation service. Check out these lung scan language refresher to help you with your 'whys and hows':Proceed With An Injection Using 78580If the pulmonologist wants to learn how well a patient is getting oxygen into their blood, he'd generally like to measure two things: how well the blood is getting down into the capillaries surrounding the alveoli in the lungs (perfusion), and how well the [...]
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