Wiki Re: Pregnancy Testss

[stlbill511]

Re: Pregnancy Testss

I have a pain doctor that wants to do a pregnancy test on patients who are of age to be pregnant to cover his liability before he does an xray on them for back pain. Can he do this and get reimbursed. He is doing a urine pregnancy test so the code I believe would be 81025 but I went on the Medicare Fee schedule and that code is not on the list. Is there another fee schedule for these codes? Can a pain doctor get reimbursed for this code?

Thanks,

Caroline

 

[Michele Hannon]

I have no experience with this.......but I do know that normally women do not get a pregnancy test before having an X-ray.
If you are interested in exploring this further......we use a Quidel product at our facility prior to a surgical procedure.......QuickVue (urine) and the link provides the code and fee schedule reimbursement.
http://www.quidel.com/pdf/reimbursement-QVMVonly.pdf

 

[ckkohler]

I also know that our local Medicare contractor has a different fee schedule for labs .. Labs are not available on the physician fee schedule. Call your local contractor to see how to find the lab fee schedule. As for doing a routine pregnancy test before doing an x-ray .. Is he doing so at the direction of his malpractice carrier? If not, maybe he should talk to them first? As for can he bill and be paid? He is an MD so, I don't know why he couldn't bill..the issue is can he be reimbursed ...don't have my diagnosis book handy .. But will look tomorrow to see what diagnosis code might be appropriate ...

 

[dwaldman]

Carolyn, this is ICD-9 that I saw on ICD-9data.com

ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code V72.41

Pregnancy examination or test, negative result