ED Coding and Reimbursement Alert
Slow Down When Coding FAST Exams
Massachusetts Subscriber
Answer: FAST (focused assessment by sonography for trauma) exams are two-part ultrasounds designed to measure abdominal trauma. Since there is no specific code for the procedure, you-ll need a couple of codes to fully report the procedure.
During a FAST exam, the physician first searches for fluid around the heart via a limited transthoracic echocardiography. The second part of the FAST exam involves the physician looking for free fluid in the abdomen via a limited abdominal ultrasound.
On your FAST exam claim, you should:
- report 93308 (Echocardiography, transthoracic, real-time with image documentation [2D] with or without M-mode recording; follow-up or limited study) for the echocardiography part of the test.
- report 76705 (Ultrasound, abdominal, B-scan and/or real-time with image documentation; limited [e.g., single organ, quadrant, follow-up]) for the ultrasound portion of the test.
- attach modifier 26 (Professional component) to 93308 and 76705 to indicate that you are coding the professional component of the FAST exam.
- include actual images from the FAST exam in your documentation, as well as a separately identifiable interpretive report.
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