Radiology Coding Alert

Question: How should we report an abdominal ultrasound and a color Doppler? Alabama Subscriber Answer: If you performed complete abdominal vessel studies, you should report 93975 (Duplex scan of arterial inflow and venous outflow of abdominal, pelvic, scrotal contents and/or retroperitoneal organs; complete study) for the Doppler and 76700 (Ultrasound, abdominal, Bscan and/or real time with image documentation; complete) for the ultrasound. How do you know if your study was "complete"? Alabama Blue Cross and Blue Shields local medical review policy (LMRP) states, "Visualization and examination of the following organs would be included in a complete abdominal ultrasound: liver, gallbladder, biliary tract, pancreas, spleen, and limited views of both kidneys." If you performed a limited abdominal study (for example, of the liver only), you should report 93976 (Duplex scan of arterial inflow and venous outflow of abdominal, pelvic, scrotal contents and/or retroperitoneal organs; limited study) and 76705 (Ultrasound, abdominal, B-scan and/or real time with image documentation; limited [e.g., single organ, quadrant, follow-up]) instead. The interpretation and report for the services you performed should clearly document the extent of each abdominal ultrasound procedure. .