Wiki Billing for COVID only when it's for diagnostic, not screening, purposes

PPietras

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Does anyone have expertise to know if you can bill for diagnostic COVID testing, while not billing for screening COVID testing?
Our organization wants us to make a distinction (by DX code) for billing - is that legal? ethical?
Pamela
 
I'm not completely sure I understand what you're asking here. The guidance right now during the pandemic is that no COVID tests should be coded as screenings, but even so, you should still be able to tell the difference. A diagnostic test would be reported with the symptoms (or final diagnosis if the results are known) as the primary code and the exposure code as secondary. If it was just a 'screening' test, then that implies that the patient is asymptomatic and the only code reported would be the exposure code. Does that help answer the question some?
 
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