Cardiology Coding Alert

Question: Which guidelines must we follow when we bill an ECG? North Dakota Subscriber Answer: You should report 93000 (Electrocardiogram, routine ECG with at least 12 leads; with interpretation and report) when your physician uses an in-office machine to perform the ECG, and your cardiologist issues and interprets a report. Code 93000 represents a complete ECG, which includes the physician's work performing the ECG, producing a report and interpreting the results.

If your cardiologist does not perform all three services, such as tracing or interpretation, do not rely on modifiers to distinguish between technical and professional services. For instance, you should not append modifiers TC (Technical component) and 26 (Professional component) to 93000. Instead, you should report either 93005 (... tracing only, without interpretation and report) for the technical component or 93010 (... interpretation and report only) for the professional service.