Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Question: When billing a capsule endoscopy 91110 do you put the date of procedure as the day the test was done, or do you put the date that the physician read the test?

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Answer: Whenever your gastroenterologist performs a capsule endoscopy procedure, the date of service for the video capsule endoscopy should be the date on which the capsule was swallowed even if the provider doesn’t send the claim for a few days while she completes the review and report. Most patients will return the recorder later on the same date so that there will be verification of data capture within 24 hours.

So, even if your gastroenterologist performed the interpretation on a later date or on the date on which the patient returned the recorder, you will still report the date of service as being the date on which the capsule was swallowed and not the date of interpretation of the test.

If your gastroenterologist sees the patient at a hospital outpatient department, then it is even more important to coordinate the professional reading service for the capsule study -- 91110 (Gastrointestinal tract imaging, intraluminal [e.g., capsule endoscopy], esophagus through ileum, with physician interpretation and report) appended by 26 (Professional component) -- on the same date used for the technical services by the hospital -- 91110 appended by TC (Technical component).