A Guide to Accuracy:
Get a Leg Up on Lymphoscintigraphy Coding
Published on Sun May 13, 2007
Protect yourself by knowing the documentation requirements
Confused about when to report lymph-imaging code 78195? Ease your mind with this guide to the procedure and appropriate documentation.
Definition: Lymphoscintigraphy is a nuclear imaging procedure used to identify lymphatic drainage patterns, and physicians often use it to identify sentinel nodes, which is the first node in a lymphatic chain that drains lymphatic fluid from a tumor site, says Stacy Gregory, RCC, CPC, of Tacoma, Wash.-based Gregory Medical Consulting Services, citing the December 1999 CPT Assistant.
Physicians use sentinel node injection and biopsy to determine, locate, or stage the amount of lymph involvement in cancer metastasis, says Bruce Hammond, CRA, CMNT, chief operating officer of Diagnostic Health Services in Texas.
The patient may have breast cancer (174.x, Malignant neoplasm of female breast; 175.x, Malignant neoplasm of male breast), cutaneous melanoma (172.x, Malignant melanoma of skin ...), or other cancers.
Documentation: The nuclear physician's documentation should include the following, according to CPT Assistant:
• steps in the procedure
• interpretation of films
• findings.
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