tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2017 Issue 2

You Be the Coder: Use Specific Liver Elastography Codes

Question: Sometimes when a physician refers a patient to our surgeon to assess liver fibrosis using a method such as needle core biopsy, the surgeon may recommend and perform ultrasound-based elastography instead, as a non-invasive option for certain high-risk patients. How should we code for this procedure — is it an unlisted code? Texas Subscriber Answer: No, you should not use an unlisted code such as 91299 (Unlisted diagnostic gastroenterology procedure) for this procedure, because CPT® provides a more specific code. Instead, you should list 91200 (Liver elastography, mechanically induced shear wave [eg, vibration], without imaging, with interpretation...

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