Not necessarily. I am assuming you are billing for the physician however if you are not please disregard what I am about to say......
Excerpt from 2009 Medlearn IR Coder- "As a rule of thumb: an aspirational biopsy sample is sent to pathology for cytologic examination; a core biopsy sample is sent to pathology for histological examination."
If you are billing for the physician's services then it does not matter if there was a pathology &/or cytology report provided since it would not reflect the way the physician bills for his services. If he or she says it was a biopsy in their report then it would be coded as such unless they state otherwise (eg. biopsy was attempted however only fluid could be obtained and was submitted. (This would change the procedure to an aspiration)).
And how can I recite this lovely information??? Because I've in your position and had many physicians point it out to me when I used to question them!!!! Of course, it did not stop me from still questioning them about other things! It's the best way to learn.....
Hope that helps a little. And again, if you are not billing for the physician just ignore me completely!
Excerpt from 2009 Medlearn IR Coder- "As a rule of thumb: an aspirational biopsy sample is sent to pathology for cytologic examination; a core biopsy sample is sent to pathology for histological examination."
If you are billing for the physician's services then it does not matter if there was a pathology &/or cytology report provided since it would not reflect the way the physician bills for his services. If he or she says it was a biopsy in their report then it would be coded as such unless they state otherwise (eg. biopsy was attempted however only fluid could be obtained and was submitted. (This would change the procedure to an aspiration)).
And how can I recite this lovely information??? Because I've in your position and had many physicians point it out to me when I used to question them!!!! Of course, it did not stop me from still questioning them about other things! It's the best way to learn.....
Hope that helps a little. And again, if you are not billing for the physician just ignore me completely!