Wiki Billing for Drug Screen Collection

[Stefanie]

A lot of our family practice physician's see Worker's Comp patient's for initial visits, on these visits, we also collection urine for drug screens, we don't run the tests in house, we send it out to the worker's comp/employer's lab of choice...
In the past they have always used code 80100, I disagree, I believe since we are not actually performing the test we can't bill this way, I believe our service only qualifies for a 99000- Specimen Handling. But being a coder for 10 years I also know most insurance companies don't pay for 99000.

My question, does any one have an opinion/experience on how worker's comp insurances pay verses "regular" insurances. Would the work comp insurance deny the 99000 like a "regular" insurance would?

 

[kmhall]

Drug screen collection

Not all workers' comp carriers will pay for this service unless it falls under a "Drug Free Workplace" contract. If that is the case then a drug screen is required and of course paid by the carrier. Of course you might not be aware of that up front. I agree with the 99000 code. This is the one we use for the specimen collection only. Just my opinion.