Wiki Collection of plasma metanephrines

[shellott]

One of our providers has started ordering plasma metanephrines. There is a procedure for collecting the specimen in the clinic and I am kind of lost as to how to bill for the work we perform. Our nurse lists the protocol as:

1. Our nuclear medicine technician does an IV start, inserting a saline lock
2. The patient is supine in a comfortable position for 30 minutes
3. The nurse then obtains a chilled lavender top tube from the lab next door to us
4. The nuclear medicine tech then draws off and wastes about 5 ml of blood and then puts 2.5 ml into chilled lavender top tube and discontinues the IV site
5. The nurse then takes the lavender top tube back to the lab next door to be processed.

I have no idea what is appropriate to bill for or which CPT codes to use so that we can receive reimbursement for the time involved as well as the supplies used. The supplies involved would be a catheter, injection site clave connector, Tegaderm transparent dressing and saline. ANy ideas?

 

[pclaybaugh]

While this is an older post, I thought I would do some research.83835 The test is performed to determine metanephrine or normetanephrine concentrations. The specimen is urine collected over a 24-hour period. Method is high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Metanephrine or normetanephrine concentrations may be associated with neuroendocrine tumors or even associated with intense physical activity, life threatening illness and drug interferences. I wasn't able to find any information to bill for the collection as it is probably bundled into the code.