Path and Lab, okay.
PanelsÖ I think we both worked on this one.
Jenna, a Blitz customer asked, ìI seem to freeze on the CPC board exam on the Path and
Lab section.
Most confusion is with panels.
I get thrown off as I seem to take too much time.
Clearly, I need to know something?
What it is I donít know?î
Okay so basically, the panels are a group of tests that are routinely done together
and itís more of a space saving time convention.
I think I haveÖ yeah okay.
So here isÖ can you see that okay?
AliciaísÖ well, you did.
Alicia: Yes.
No, we wentÖ
Laureen: Wait a minute.
Where did it go?
Alicia: There you go.
Youíve got it.
No, thatísÖ thatís the one we laughed about.
Laureen: Alright, there we go.
Alicia: Well, sheísÖ there, sheís got it.
Laureen: So basicallyÖ and Iíll try to not click on it because when I click on it, that
makes it go to the next slide.
This is just a scan of my Pathology and Lab section and what youíll see here is like
80047.
Itís a basic metabolic panel.
And this, what I have bracketed here, these 8 tests are bundled into this code, 80047.
So rather than on a claim form write out all of these 8 different CPT codes, we just write
out the one, 80047.
And I just put 8 just so you know, indicate okay, thereís 8 tests bundled into 80047.
Now the physicians are not required toÖ when they want a basic metabolic panel to use all
8 of these tests.
Maybe theyíll only want 7 of them.
Thatís fine.
Then they would bill the 7 out individually.
But if they did do all 8 then youíre required to bill the panel and not bill them separately,
okay?
And then it gets really interesting if you look at A0050.
This is a general health panel and itís a panel that includes another panel.
And thatís why even though it looks short, it actually is 17 tests when you add it up
because it includes a comprehensive metabolic panel which is A0053.
It includes these two blood count-type procedures and it could be this type or that type so
it can get a little complicated.
And then finally, the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone.
So thatís like 17 tests in one.
Now if youíre focusing on this for a board exam question, what youíll want to do is
typically, youíll see one answer that will have just the one code, the panel code.
And then youíll see another one that might have like 7 or 9 tests listed out.
What I recommend is use your pencil, go to the panel, start reading the scenario and
start lightly crossing off the ones that are listed.
And if you have all 8 and thatís it then you know you need to use a panel code.
If youíre missing one then you need to bill outÖ you need to pick the answer with the
7 that are listed.
And if you have 9 then you bill the panel code and then the one left over test so youíll
have 2 codes, okay?
Was there anything else that you wanted to add on this one, Alicia?
Alicia: Iím sorry, say it again.
Laureen: Was there anything else that you want to add on this one?
Alicia: Yes, I did want to add that I justÖ I had taken a certification exam as well and
even though we donít discuss exam questions the highlight of the question was which 3
panels included glucose, potassium, and sodium?
And so it gave you 4 choices and there was one that didnít.
And you know, when you have it highlighted or bubbled like this, it would be real easy
to pick thoseÖ pick that out.
I actually put all the glucose in pink, potassium in yellow and sodium in orange in my manual
just so I can quickly reference which ones had the three.
Laureen: And you did that on the fly while youíre taking the exam?
Alicia: No, I did it the other day, afterwards.
Laureen: Oh okay.
Alicia: Actually, I did it today.
Laureen: There you go.
Good.
Alright so thatís a Path and Lab question.
We donít get too many of them and of course, tonight, we got two.
So hereís Path and Lab on Reproductive Medicine.
Alicia: Is that the one we thought was a joke in the first.
Laureen: Oh this is the spermÖ oh yeah, the sperm one.
Alright, explain how to code when the question talks about going to a sperm facility for
3 days and itís being frozen.
Can you use units like times 3, times 4, etc.. or should you use one code for the entire
time you went in to give your sperm to the sperm bank?
Alright so I went to find the code and I looked up 89343.
And findthecode.com is a site that we promote because I use it all the time.
And for our members, if you go there and sign up and you use the coupon code CCO for codingcertfication.org,
you will get $60 off a year.
So I encourage you to do that when youíre ready to start using online coding manuals.
And so part of what they have is this plain English description which is really cool and
it just talked about you know, whatís actually being done with these types of procedures.
Also, within it, I could go to the CPT assistance and found that it said the following codes
are for storage of each identified item.
And in that list was the 89343.
So the conclusion is that if theyíre frozen and stored each time theyíre donated then
there would be 3 codes.
SoÖ and thatís kind of how you can be like a resourceful coder and kind of go in and
do a little research.
CPT Assistant is like the helper magazine to the CPT manual.
It does cost to get access to it but if you sign up for Find The Code and you do the upgrade
to get CPT Assistant, once you get certified, youíll find it very, very useful for real
world coding questions like this.