Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: The cardiologist assesses the patient's blood flow in the arteries of his legs before and after treadmill stress testing using bidirectional Doppler waveform analysis. The cardiologist monitors the patient's symptoms and exercise tolerance. Which CPT^® code should we report?

New York Subscriber

Answer: The correct code in this case would be 93924 (Noninvasive physiologic studies of lower extremity arteries, at rest and following treadmill stress testing, (ie, bidirectional Doppler waveform or volume plethysmography recording and analysis at rest with ankle/brachial indices immediately after and at timed intervals following performance of a standardized protocol on a motorized treadmill plus recording of timeof onset of claudication or other symptoms, maximal walking time, and time to recovery) complete bilateral study).

Caution: You should never report 93924 in conjunction with limited bilateral noninvasive physiologic studies code 93922 (Limited bilateral noninvasive physiologic studies of upper or lower extremity arteries...)  or complete bilateral noninvasive physiologic studies code 93923 (Complete bilateral noninvasive physiologic studies of upper or lower extremity arteries ...). Do not append modifier 50 (Bilateral procedure) to these codes or bill with more than one unit of service because these codes are bilateral specific.