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Cardiology Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Find Out if Modifiers TC, 26 Can Occur on 2 Dates

Published on Fri Oct 26, 2007

Question: A patient underwent a diagnostic test on day one, but the cardiologist didn't perform the interpretation until day two. Should I report this with two different dates or just one? California Subscriber
Answer: You can bill the technical component and professional components of diagnostic procedure codes for separate dates of service. Watch out: The date of interpretation (professional component) must match what the cardiologist documents on the medical records for the patient. Remember: Do not claim an interpretation and report for a single diagnostic test for two dates of service. You should apply the interpretation and report portion of the diagnostic test to the actual date of service. For example, if a cardiologist performs an echocardiogram on Monday but does not interpret the test until Tuesday, the actual date of the professional component is a day later than the day of the technical component. So you should report 93307-TC (Echocardiography, transthoracic, real-time with image documentation [2D] with or without M-mode recording; complete; technical component) on Monday and 99307-26 (... professional component) on Tuesday.
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