| When your pathologist carries out sterile macroscopic | | | | cells from paraffin embedded material or cutting |
| dissection to prep tissue for molecular diagnostics | | | | sections from a block for send-out, that's not covered |
| tests, you did not have a way to capture the service | | | | by 88387 or +88388. |
| prior to this. Take advantage of this new payment | | | | Tip 3: Ban 88387-88388 for microbiology or flow |
| opportunity by learning when you can and cannot use | | | | cytometry prep |
| the 2010 codes, how to document the service and | | | | According to CPT 2010, you shouldn't go for |
| what you need to know for correct billing. | | | | 88387-88388 for tissue preparation for microbiologic |
| Tip 1: Know the ‘Macro' service | | | | cultures or flow cytometric studies. |
| CPT 2010 introduces two new codes to describe | | | | That rules out reporting 88387 or +88388 as prep for |
| surgical pathology tissue prep for some ancillary tests. | | | | any microbiology codes or 88182-88189. |
| These codes describe macroscopic examination and | | | | Tip 4: Avoid 88387-88388 for Microscopy Prep |
| processing of the target tissue like a sentimental lymph | | | | As the code descriptors specifically reference |
| node for non-microscopic molecular analysis. | | | | no-microscopic analytic studies, you shouldn't report |
| The processing covers work like dissecting an | | | | 88387 or +88388 for tissue prep for special stains or |
| appropriate portion of the tissue away from the main | | | | immunohistochemistry-based tumor morphometry |
| specimen and cutting and labeling thin sections under | | | | analysis. |
| sterile conditions. | | | | Tip 5: Go for codes with ancillary molecular diagnostics |
| Tip 2: Apply codes to pre-analytic work | | | | According to the code definition, you should go for |
| You shouldn't report 88387 or +88388 when the | | | | 88387 or +88388 for special tissue prep for |
| pathologist retrospectively chooses tissue block for | | | | "nucleic-acid based molecular studies". |
| molecular analysis based on the initial slide review. | | | | For more on this and for free searchable online CPT |
| You have to think ‘pre-analytic and | | | | codes, sign up for a one-stop medical coding website. |
| ‘macroscopic' when deciding whether to use one | | | | Such a site will provide you with everything you need |
| of these codes. Early indications are that some labs | | | | to know to code right for your practice. |
| are using them incorrectly if you are selecting tumor | | | | |