Wiki Nerve Conduction Study Question

[tmorgan808]

I have a provider that is performing nerve conduction studies. He does the right extremity on 1 day, then brings the patient back and does the left extremity 1 week later. He is billing studies for both dates of service. Would this be considered a continuation of the same study, therefore not separately billable? I haven't ever seen a provider split the test up and bill for both dates. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SharonCollachi]

I know this is a bit old, but I found it to be an interesting question. Only once in the last 7 years can I recall us bringing a patient back on a different day to finish an EMG/NCV. In this case, the patient was very fatigued, so we let them go home and return the following day. It was not planned in advance, as it appears to be in your question. We used the first date of service to bill, and bundled everything together. My doc states there is rarely a reason to purposefully split the study. The wrong reason would be for more reimbursement, since, for example, two instances of 95908 (3-4 studies) pays more than one instance of 95909 (5-6 studies).

I would also be interested in the denial rate.

 

[aparscal]

one or two times my provider has done the nerve conduction test on one day and then brought them back to do the EMG either ran out of time, or because the NCV was very painful. What about that situation?

 

[SharonCollachi]

You still use the first date of service to bill.