Wiki Nerve Conduction Studies - do bi-lateral tests

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wweaver34

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Would someone please help me out on how to count the new Nerve Conduction Study codes. I know it's supposed to be counted per test(s) now. But what if we do bi-lateral tests? Are those counted twice? I'm still fairly new to Neurology and these coding changes aren't very clear to me or my doc.

Wendy R. Weaver, CPC
Andalusia Neurology, PC
 
yes a bilateral test would be counted twice, as it is per test, and that wouldn't be subject to the bilateral requirement as far as I know.
 
For NCS you count the number of nerves total. It does not matter if it is bilateral.
 
NCS units and modifier

For New NCS codes (95907-95913), as modifier RT/LT are not valid, can we bill it without any modifier.
Also as code itself tells how many nerves were studied, do we need to bill NCS series codes without units.

Kindly share your understanding.

Thanks,
Shruthi.
 
Yes to both, you would not need any modifiers, and because the codes themselves include the "units" you would only bill one unit each time it's done
 
Transcarpal Study

So if my provider does
1 Motor on the Median Nerve
1 Sensory on the Median Nerve
1 Motor on the Ulnar Nerve
1 Sensory on the Ulnar Nerve
...that is 4 tests?
What if he then does a Transcarpal Mixed Nerve Study as well, is that counted separate?

Thank you
 
To Chistina:
F-waves, per the guidelines in green, are counted as included with the motor studies, they are not separate. From the text: "For the purposes of coding, a single conduction study is defined as a sensory conduction test, a motor conduction test with or without F wave test, or an H-reflex test." Therefore you wouldn't count f-waves separately. Hope that helps :)

To kkehoe77:
See the quote above...you have 2 motors and 2 sense, which would make 4 tests. The guidelines dont actually specify anything about mixed nerves, but because they are in appendix J I would count it. As long as you only count each nerve tested once, you should be fine. Make sense? Hope I could help :)
 
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