Wiki Question regarding negative result Microbiology Culture

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Wappingers Falls, NY
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I just started billing for microbiology cultures for the practice. Currently we are billing positive cultures as follows:
Urine - 87077, 87186, and 87187 (if additional sensitivities are done)
Rectal swab - 87045, 87077, and 87186

I was wondering, is there a code for when the urine and rectal swab cultures are negative, or is this something that is not billable because it was a negative result? Currently our group is not billing for a negative culture.

I saw in an AHIMA blog http://engage.ahima.org/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=19&MID=11369 that we should be billing 87086 even when there is no growth. What are your thoughts on this?

As for the rectal swab, I saw on the supercoder site that we should bill for all services regardless if there is a positive or negative result. https://www.supercoder.com/coding-n...et-all-you-deserve-for-stool-cultures-article Currently we are not billing for negative results of rectal swabs. Thoughts on this as well please.

I appreciate any and all assistance with this.
Jennifer Murphy, CPC
 
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