Wiki NCS Help

[bostonmom]

Hello,
I am new to EMG coding. I am struggling with Nerve conduction studies counting. Would this count as 7 studies or 6? Any help and guidance would very much be appreciated.

SNC

Left Sural (Lat Mall)
Right Sural (Lat Mall)

MNC

Left Peroneal-EDB
Right Peroneal - EDB Ankle and B Fib
Left Tibial Motor (Abd Hall Brev)
Right Tibial Motor (Abd Hall Brev)

F Wave

Right Tibial-AH

Please help! Would you count the F wave? Thank you in advance!

 

[marvelh]

This would be a total of 6 nerve conduction studies or 95909. The Right Tibial-AH F Wave study is performed on the same nerve as the Right Tibial motor (Abductor Hallicus Brevis aka AH) testing. The CPT section guidelines for nerve conduction studies state: (bold emphasis added)

For the purposes of coding, a single conduction study is defined as a sensory conduction test, a motor conduction test with or without an F wave test, or an H-reflex test. Each type of study (sensory, motor with or without F wave, H-reflex) for each nerve includes all orthodromic and antidromic impulses associated with that nerve and constitutes a distinct study when determining the number of studies in each grouping (eg, 1-2 or 3-4 nerve conduction studies). Each type of nerve conduction study is counted only once when multiple sites on the same nerve are stimulated or recorded.

Note that the coding instructions state that the motor conduction testing is counted as 1 test performed either with or without the corresponding F wave test.