You Be the Expert: Portable Fluoroscan

Test your coding knowledge.  Determine how you would code this situation before looking at the box below for the answer.

Question: Our emergency department has a portable fluoroscopy unit (like a fluoroscan) for x-rays of the extremities. If emergency physicians use the fluoroscan in the ED for this purpose, should the hospital bill imaging or fluoroscopy codes? 

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Answer: If no images are produced you cannot use the codes for the images. In your example, all that has been done is fluoroscopy, so the hospital should report 76000 (fluoroscopy [separate procedure] up to one hour physician time).
 
Depending on the hospital's arrangement with its radiologists, using 76000 may also save the patient the expense of a radiologist's fee for interpreting the images. The ED should contact someone in the radiology department to determine how or if they should document the use of the fluoro, as well as the amount of fluoro used. The radiology department should know what is being done and how to handle the documentation for the ionizing radiation.

- Published on 2001-10-01