Wiki Billing of Drug Screens

[namedcare]

We are a primary care/urgent care facility and utilize 4 drug class drug screens in our lab. We bill 80101QW and I need some clarification on the correct billing procedure. We are only billing one unit, however documentation from CMS (April 1,2010) states you bill one unit per class. Does anyone have insight into this topic?

 

[kmhall]

We are a primary care/urgent care facility and utilize 4 drug class drug screens in our lab. We bill 80101QW and I need some clarification on the correct billing procedure. We are only billing one unit, however documentation from CMS (April 1,2010) states you bill one unit per class. Does anyone have insight into this topic?

Which 4 classes of drugs are you testing and how are they tested? For qualitative screening CPT has a list of examples of drugs or classes of drugs that are usually assayed by qualitative screen and it states that confirmed drugs can also be quantitated. For these we use code 80100.

In our facility we test 5, 9 and 10 different classes (we label them as "panels") and use code 80100 (for multiple drug classes, qualitative) one time. Now, if any of them come back as a positive, you could bill additionally for each one using code 80102. Hope this helps!

 

[Anna Weaver]

If you use the search engine on this site on the main page, and just type in 80101, you will find a multitude of threads started concerning just this topic. Lots of good info and references to start your search.