Wiki Bladder Ultrasound

[Barbara A. Love]

I have a provider that did a ultrasound on a patient who came in with the symptom of oliguria. The patient was unable to void and the provider did an ultrasound to determine how much fluid was in his bladder. Question, can the provider still bill CPT code 51798 even though the patient did not void first?

Thanks for any and all reply,

Barbara

 

[feliciathomas]

My question to you would be:
1. Did the provider perform an in and out catheter after the initial ultrasound to check the bladder?

2. If so, was another ultrasound performed to check the size of the bladder?

In my opinion, the provider can only bill 51798 if he indeed performed another ultrasound after some sort of procedure to get the patient to void. (This is was is specfically mentioned in the CPt code).

If not, I believe that you could only bill for the visit and the inital bladder scan.